Neurological

The roots of Major Depression in all of its genetic complexity revealed

A massive genome-wide association study (GWAS) of genetic and health records of 1.2 million people from four separate databases identified 178 gene variants associated with major depression, a condition that will affect one in five people at some point in their lives .

The results of the study, led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at Yale University School of Medicine and the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), could one day help identify people who are the most powerful Are at risk of depression and related psychiatric illnesses and help doctors prescribe medications that are best suited to treat the condition.

The study was published on May 27 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

For the study, the research team analyzed medical records and genomes from more than 300,000 participants in the VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP), one of the largest and most diverse databases of genetic and medical information in the world.

This new data was combined in a meta-analysis with genetic and health data from UK biobank FinnGen (a Finland-based biobank) and results from consumer genetics company 23andMe. This part of the study included 1.2 million participants. The researchers checked their results from this analysis with a completely separate sample of 1.3 million volunteers from 23andMe customers.

The scope of the new GWAS study will help clinicians develop polygenic risk scores to identify those most at risk of developing major depression and other related psychiatric disorders like anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, say the authors.

The study also offers deep insights into the underlying biology of genetic disorders. For example, one variant of the gene involved in depression is NEGR1, a neural growth regulator active in the hypothalamus, an area of ​​the brain previously linked to depression.

Insights into the functions of the variants can also help identify many drugs that show promise in treating depression, the researchers say.

One of the real goals of research is to find new ways to treat people with depression.

Co-senior author Dr. Murray Stein, psychiatrist at VA San Diego Healthcare System and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at UCSD.

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