1Cell 2012 Apr 149: 525-37
PMID22521361
TitleSequencing chromosomal abnormalities reveals neurodevelopmental loci that confer risk across diagnostic boundaries.
AbstractBalanced chromosomal abnormalities (BCAs) represent a relatively untapped reservoir of single-gene disruptions in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). We sequenced BCAs in patients with autism or related NDDs, revealing disruption of 33 loci in four general categories: (1) genes previously associated with abnormal neurodevelopment (e.g., AUTS2, FOXP1, and CDKL5), (2) single-gene contributors to microdeletion syndromes (MBD5, SATB2, EHMT1, and SNURF-SNRPN), (3) novel risk loci (e.g., CHD8, KIRREL3, and ZNF507), and (4) genes associated with later-onset psychiatric disorders (e.g., TCF4, ZNF804A, PDE10A, GRIN2B, and ANK3). We also discovered among neurodevelopmental cases a profoundly increased burden of copy-number variants from these 33 loci and a significant enrichment of polygenic risk alleles from genome-wide association studies of autism and schizophrenia. Our findings suggest a polygenic risk model of autism and reveal that some neurodevelopmental genes are sensitive to perturbation by multiple mutational mechanisms, leading to variable phenotypic outcomes that manifest at different life stages.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
2Schizophr. Res. 2016 Apr -1: -1
PMID27061659
TitleSpecific gene expression patterns of 108 schizophrenia-associated loci in cortex.
AbstractThe latest genome-wide association study of schizophrenia identified 108 distinct genomic loci that contribute to schizophrenia. Brain development and function depend on the precise regulation of gene expression. The expression of many genes is differentially regulated across brain regions and developmental time points. We investigated the specific gene expression patterns arising from the 108 schizophrenia-associated loci using multiple publicly available databases and multiple regional brain datasets from developing and adult post-mortem human brains. The temporal-spatial expression analysis revealed that the genes in these loci were intensively enriched in the cortex during several developmental stages. These cortex-specific genes were particularly expressed in the fetal brain and adult neocortex.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia