Apples for Health- Researchers find new schizophrenia gene

Researchers find new schizophrenia gene

BALTIMORE, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they've discovered a variation in the neuregulin 3 gene that influences delusions associated with schizophrenia.

The Johns Hopkins University researchers say their discovery moves science closer to understanding schizophrenia and related disorders.

"Neuregulin 3 is clearly one more gene to add to the few currently known to contribute to schizophrenia," said Dr. David Valle, director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Hopkins.

"There's much more to do, but we're making progress."

He said schizophrenia is a varied condition with a number of symptoms not shared by all affected, which might be one reason why it's been difficult to identify genes that contribute to the condition.

"Neuregulin 3 makes sense because it's turned on mostly in the central nervous system, and the related gene neuregulin 1 also has been shown to be associated with schizophrenia," said Associate Professor Dimitrios Avramopoulos. He said the team will next sequence the neuregulin 3 gene from patients who participated in the study, looking for rare genetic variants that might also contribute to the condition.

The research that included Pei-Lung Chen, Virginia Lasseter, John McGrath, M. Daniele Fallin, Kung-Yee Liang, Gerald Nestadt, Ningping Feng, Gary Steel, Andrew Cutting, Paula Wolyniec, Ann Pulver, and David Valle appears in the Jan. 9 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.