An 18-year study using the DNA of thousands of people in India has identified a new clue in the quest for causes of schizophrenia, and for potential treatments. This study identified a gene called NAPRT1 that encodes an enzyme involved in vitamin B3 metabolism.

A collaboration between The University of Queensland (UQ) and a team of Indian researchers led by Professor Rangaswamy Thara, co- founder and director of the Schizophrenia Research Foundation in Chennai, searched the genomes of more than 3000 individuals and found those with schizophrenia were more likely to have a particular genetic variation.

Professor Bryan Mowry from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) said such studies had predominantly been done in populations with European ancestry, with more than 100 schizophrenia-associated variants identified previously.

«Looking at other populations can highlight different parts of the genome with a more robust association with the disease,» Professor Mowry said.

«This study identified a gene called NAPRT1 that encodes an enzyme involved in vitamin B3 metabolism — we were also able to find this gene in a large genomic dataset of schizophrenia patients with European ancestry.

«When we knocked out the NAPRT1 gene in zebrafish, brain development of the fish was impaired — we are now working to understand more deeply how this gene functions in the brain.»

«The zebrafish brain failed to divide symmetrically which is significant, because MRI studies in people with schizophrenia have shown defects in the corpus callosum — the bridge between the left and right sides of the brain.»

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