Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder broadly accepted being caused by genetic and environmental factors. Although conventional genetic studies have identified some candidate genes for schizophrenia, l...Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder broadly accepted being caused by genetic and environmental factors. Although conventional genetic studies have identified some candidate genes for schizophrenia, low odds ratios and penetrance, and a lack of reproducibility have limited their explanatory power. Despite the major efforts made toward identifying environmental factors in schizophrenia, methodological limitations and inconsistent findings of epidemiological reports have obstructed attempts to identify exogenous causal factors. Epigenetic mechanisms, mediating between environment and genes, have recently been proposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. DNA methylation is the most stable and well-characterized epigenetic modification. In this paper, we briefly introduce DNA methylation mechanisms, genome-wide DNA methylation studies, and identify specific genomic methylation sites in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The outline candidate genes such as Reelin and COMT, are also outlined before paying attention to the conundrum of recent researches.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81271484 and 81471361 toX.C,30900486 and 81371480 to J.T)the National Key Basic Research and Development Program(2012CB517904 to X.C)
文摘Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder broadly accepted being caused by genetic and environmental factors. Although conventional genetic studies have identified some candidate genes for schizophrenia, low odds ratios and penetrance, and a lack of reproducibility have limited their explanatory power. Despite the major efforts made toward identifying environmental factors in schizophrenia, methodological limitations and inconsistent findings of epidemiological reports have obstructed attempts to identify exogenous causal factors. Epigenetic mechanisms, mediating between environment and genes, have recently been proposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. DNA methylation is the most stable and well-characterized epigenetic modification. In this paper, we briefly introduce DNA methylation mechanisms, genome-wide DNA methylation studies, and identify specific genomic methylation sites in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The outline candidate genes such as Reelin and COMT, are also outlined before paying attention to the conundrum of recent researches.
