PSY 511.003
2024-04-18
Kendler (2024)
Can we show that critical causal pathways to psychiatric illness occur in the brain? (Kendler, 2024)
flowchart LR A[Genes] --> B[Schizophrenia] A --> C[Brain] C --> B
…we report common variant associations at 287 distinct genomic loci. Associations were concentrated in genes that are expressed in excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the central nervous system, but not in other tissues or cell types. (Trubetskoy et al., 2022)
Our way forward is to convert this question into a scientifically tractable form, which I try to do here by asking where in the human body genetic risk factors for our disorders are expressed. A tentative answer, at least for schizophrenia…“it is entirely in the brain.” (Kendler, 2024)
