A team of researchers led by scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and the Department of Veterans Affairs conducted the largest and most comprehensive genome-wide association study to date of schizophrenia in individuals of African ancestry. The study, published January 21 in Nature, identified more than 100 genetic regions associated with schizophrenia that had not been clearly identified in prior research.
Schizophrenia affects people across all regions and backgrounds, yet most genetic studies to date have focused on individuals of European ancestry. This imbalance has limited scientific understanding of the disorder and reduced accuracy of genetic tools for millions of people, particularly those of African ancestry. Researchers found more than 100 new regions in the human genome linked to schizophrenia. Many of these genetic differences are more common in people of African ancestry, explaining why they were missed in earlier studies that mostly included European ancestry populations.
Even though some genetic differences vary by ancestry, the study found that schizophrenia affects the same underlying brain systems across populations. People around the world may carry different genetic “spelling changes,” but those changes tend to disrupt the same genes and the same brain cells. These cells work together to keep brain signals balanced, and disruptions in this balance appear central to schizophrenia. The researchers emphasized that genetic findings inform biology and research but do not predict who will or will not develop the illness. Environmental, social, and cultural factors also play critical roles in mental health and are not captured by genetic studies alone. The authors stress that larger and more diverse datasets from populations of African ancestry are urgently needed for future work.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.newswise.com/articles/largest-genetic-study-of-schizophrenia-and-african-ancestry-reveals-shared-biology-across-global-populations/?sc=rsla