Originally published October 10 2005
Rutgers scientists study the genetic origins of psychiatric disorders
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, published a study in The American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) that adds further evidence to the link between autism and a gene named Engrailed 2 (EN2), important in central nervous system development.
Scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) have unveiled new information regarding the genetic, cellular and neurological bases of susceptibility to these diseases.
Using data drawn from the Rutgers Cell and DNA Repository on 518 families, each with multiple autistic children, James Millonig and Linda Brzustowicz, assisted by Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom, led a team that further substantiates the link between autism and Engrailed 2 (EN2), a gene important in central nervous system development.
Further work on characterizing EN2 and on the identification of additional autism susceptibility genes will be funded by a $2.3 million grant to Millonig and DiCicco-Bloom and a linked $2.5 million grant to Brzustowicz from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to identify additional autism susceptibility genes.
Millonig is an assistant professor of neuroscience and cell biology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and an adjunct assistant professor in Rutgers' department of genetics.
Brustowicz is a professor of genetics at Rutgers, a board certified psychiatrist and an associate professor of psychiatry at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School; DiCicco-Bloom is a professor of neuroscience and cell biology at UMDNJ-RWJMS.
A second team led by Brustowicz and Bonnie Firestein, an assistant professor in Rutgers' department of cell biology and neuroscience, implicated a gene called CAPON in schizophrenia.
Using a sample of post-mortem brains, the researchers found elevated levels of this variant in the brains from individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Brzustowicz and Firestein also offered their conclusions about how CAPON operates in its signaling context, functional evidence supporting the connection between the gene and these psychiatric diseases.
The gene was known to code for a protein that functioned in a neuronal pathway thought to be linked to schizophrenia.
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