schizophrenia study finds genetic associations.

[voner]

The New York Times has a pretty well written summary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/h...ng-brain-psychiatry.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

here is the abstract,

Schizophrenia risk from complex variation of complement component 4

Schizophrenia is a heritable brain illness with unknown pathogenic mechanisms. Schizophrenia’s strongest genetic association at a population level involves variation in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) locus, but the genes and molecular mechanisms accounting for this have been challenging to identify. Here we show that this association arises in part from many structurally diverse alleles of the complement component 4 (C4) genes. We found that these alleles generated widely varying levels of C4A and C4B expression in the brain, with each common C4 allele associating with schizophrenia in proportion to its tendency to generate greater expression of C4A. Human C4 protein localized to neuronal synapses, dendrites, axons, and cell bodies. In mice, C4 mediated synapse elimination during postnatal development. These results implicate excessive complement activity in the development of schizophrenia and may help explain the reduced numbers of synapses in the brains of individuals with schizophrenia.

here is a link to the paper...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature16549.html

 

[Sidereal]

Yes but:

Carrying a gene variant that facilitates aggressive pruning is hardly enough to cause schizophrenia; far too many other factors are at work. Having such a variant, Dr. McCarroll estimates, would increase a person’s risk by about 25 percent over the 1 percent base rate of schizophrenia — that is, to 1.25 percent. That is not nearly enough to justify testing in the general population, even if further research confirms the new findings and clarifies the roles of other associated genes.

 

[IreneF]

I read the article. If it's replicated and expanded, it could change schizophrenia from a psychiatric to a neurologic disorder.

 

[voner]

here is an even better description of the study. they are suggesting that schizophrenia may have something to do with a dysfunction in adolescents innate immune system and the brain's synaptic pruning system.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/546136/immune-system-offers-major-clue-to-schizophrenia/

 

[wastwater]

It's on the short arm of chromosome 6.
Think I've seen MS associated with this region too.