BackgroundAn increasing number of genetic causes of intellectual disabilities (ID) are identifiable by clinical genetic testing, offering the prospect of bespoke patient management. However, little is known about the practices of psychiatrists and their views on genetic testing.MethodWe undertook an online survey of 215 psychiatrists, who were contacted via the Royal College of Psychiatrist's Child and Adolescent and Intellectual Disability Psychiatry mailing lists.ResultsIn comparison with child and adolescent psychiatrists, intellectual disability psychiatrists ordered more genetic tests, referred more patients to genetic services, and were overall more confident in the genetic testing process. Respondents tended to agree that genetic diagnoses can help patient management; however, management changes were infrequently found in clinical practice.ConclusionsDifferences are apparent in the existing views and practices of child and adolescent and intellectual disability psychiatrists. Developing training and collaboration with colleagues working in genetic services could help to reduce discrepancies and improve clinical practice.
In: Alcohol and alcoholism: the international journal of the Medical Council on Alcoholism (MCA) and the journal of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA), Band 57, Heft 5, S. 581-588
Aims Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is commonly associated with chronic alcohol misuse, a condition known to have multiple detrimental effects on thiamine metabolism. This study was conducted to identify genetic variants that may contribute to the development of WKS in individuals with alcohol dependence syndrome through alteration of thiamine transport into cells.
Methods Exome sequencing data from a panel of genes related to alcohol metabolism and thiamine pathways were analysed in a discovery cohort of 29 individuals with WKS to identify possible genetic risk variants associated with its development. Variant frequencies in this discovery cohort were compared with European frequencies in the Genome Aggregation Database browser, and those present at significantly higher frequencies were genotyped in an additional cohort of 87 alcohol-dependent cases with WKS and 197 alcohol-dependent cognitively intact controls.
Results Thirty non-synonymous variants were identified in the discovery cohort and, after filtering, 23 were taken forward and genotyped in the case–control cohort. Of these SLC19A1:rs1051266:G was nominally associated with WKS. SLC19A1 encodes the reduced folate carrier, a major transporter for physiological folate in plasma; rs1051266 is reported to impact folate transport. Thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) efflux was significantly decreased in HEK293 cells, stably transfected with rs1051266:G, under thiamine deficient conditions when compared with the efflux from cells transfected with rs1051266:A (P = 5.7 × 10−11).
Conclusion This study provides evidence for the role of genetic variation in the SLC19A1 gene, which may contribute to the development of WKS in vivo through modulation of TPP transport in cells.
BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence for shared genetic susceptibility between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Although genetic variants only convey subtle increases in risk individually, their combination into a polygenic risk score constitutes a strong disease predictor.AimsTo investigate whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder polygenic risk scores can distinguish people with broadly defined psychosis and their unaffected relatives from controls. METHOD: Using the latest Psychiatric Genomics Consortium data, we calculated schizophrenia and bipolar disorder polygenic risk scores for 1168 people with psychosis, 552 unaffected relatives and 1472 controls. RESULTS: Patients with broadly defined psychosis had dramatic increases in schizophrenia and bipolar polygenic risk scores, as did their relatives, albeit to a lesser degree. However, the accuracy of predictive models was modest. CONCLUSIONS: Although polygenic risk scores are not ready for clinical use, it is hoped that as they are refined they could help towards risk reduction advice and early interventions for psychosis.Declaration of interestR.M.M. has received honoraria for lectures from Janssen, Lundbeck, Lilly, Otsuka and Sunovian. ; Funding: This work was funded by the Medical Research Council (G0901310), the Wellcome Trust (grants 085475/B/08/Z, 085475/Z/08/Z), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (grant 602450). This study was also supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University College London (mental health theme) and by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry – Kings College London. Further support: NHIR Academic Clinical fellowship awarded to M.S.C. E.B. acknowledges research funding from: BMA Margaret Temple grants 2016 and 2006, MRC – Korean Health Industry Development Institute Partnering Award (MC_PC_16014), MRC New Investigator Award and a MRC Centenary Award (G0901310), National Institute of Health Research UK post-doctoral fellowship, the Psychiatry Research Trust, the Schizophrenia Research Fund, the Brain and Behaviour Research foundation's NARSAD Young Investigator Awards 2005, 2008, Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry Kings College London. The Brain and Behaviour Research foundation's (NARSAD's) Young Investigator Award (Grant 22604, awarded to C.I.). The BMA Margaret Temple grant 2016 to J. H.T. European Research Council Marie Curie award to A.D.-R. The infrastructure for the GROUP consortium is funded through the Geestkracht programme of the Dutch Health Research Council (ZON-MW, grant number 10-000-1001), and matching funds from participating pharmaceutical companies (Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen Cilag) and universities and mental healthcare organisations. Amsterdam: Academic Psychiatric Centre of the Academic Medical Center and the mental health institutions: GGZ Ingeest, Arkin, Dijk en Duin, GGZ Rivierduinen, Erasmus Medical Centre, GGZ Noord Holland Noord. Maastricht: Maastricht University Medical Centre and the mental health institutions: GGZ Eindhoven en de kempen, GGZ Breburg, GGZ Oost-Brabant, Vincent van Gogh voor Geestelijke Gezondheid, Mondriaan Zorggroep, Prins Clauscentrum Sittard, RIAGG Roermond, Universitair Centrum Sint-Jozef Kortenberg, CAPRI University of Antwerp, PC Ziekeren Sint-Truiden, PZ Sancta Maria Sint-Truiden, GGZ Overpelt, OPZ Rekem. Groningen: University Medical Center Groningen and the mental health institutions: Lentis, GGZ Friesland, GGZ Drenthe, Dimence, Mediant, GGNet Warnsveld, Yulius Dordrecht and Parnassia psychomedical center (The Hague). Utrecht: University Medical Center Utrecht and the mental health institutions Altrecht, GGZ Centraal, Riagg Amersfoort and Delta. The sample from Spain was collected at the Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain, under the following grant support: Carlos III Health Institute PI020499, PI050427, PI060507, Plan Nacional de Drugs Research Grant 2005- Orden sco/3246/2004, SENY Fundació Research Grant CI 2005-0308007 and Fundación Marqués de Valdecilla API07/011. The present data were obtained at the Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain, under the following grant support: MINECO Exp.: SAF2013-46292-R.
This work was supported by Medical Research Council Centre grant MR/ L010305/1, Medical Research Council Program grant MR/P005748/1, and Medical Research Council Project grants MR/L011794/1 and MC_PC_17212 to Cardiff University and by the National Centre for Mental Health, funded by the Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales. This work acknowledges the support of the Supercomputing Wales project, which is partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Government. Dr Pardiñas was supported by an Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award (SBF005\1083). Dr Andreassen was supported by the Research Council of Norway (grants 283798, 262656, 248980, 273291, 248828, 248778, and 223273); KG Jebsen Stiftelsen, South-East Norway Health Authority, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant 847776). Dr Ajnakina was supported by an National Institute for Health Research postdoctoral fellowship (PDF-2018-11-ST2-020). Dr Joyce was supported by the University College London Hospitals/UCL University College London Biomedical Research Centre. Dr Kowalec received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement (793530) from the government of Canada Banting postdoctoral fellowship programme and the University of Manitoba. Dr Sullivan was supported by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, D0886501), the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme (COSYN, 610307) and the US National Institute of Mental Health (U01 MH109528 and R01 MH077139). The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium was partly supported by the National Institute Of Mental Health (grants R01MH124873). The Sweden Schizophrenia Study was supported by the National Institute Of Mental Health (grant R01MH077139). The STRATA consortium was supported by a Stratified Medicine Programme grant to Dr MacCabe from the Medical Research Council (grant MR/L011794/1), which funded the research and supported Drs Pardiñas, ...
The burden of large and rare copy number genetic variants (CNVs) as well as certain specific CNVs increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Several cognitive measures are purported schizophrenia endophenotypes and may represent an intermediate point between genetics and the illness. This paper investigates the influence of CNVs on cognition. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature exploring the effect of CNV burden on general intelligence. We included ten primary studies with a total of 18,847 participants and found no evidence of association. In a new psychosis family study, we investigated the effects of CNVs on specific cognitive abilities. We examined the burden of large and rare CNVs (>200 kb, <1% MAF) as well as known schizophrenia-associated CNVs in patients with psychotic disorders, their unaffected relatives and controls (N = 3428) from the Psychosis Endophenotypes International Consortium (PEIC). The carriers of specific schizophrenia-associated CNVs showed poorer performance than non-carriers in immediate (P = 0.0036) and delayed (P = 0.0115) verbal recall. We found suggestive evidence that carriers of schizophrenia-associated CNVs had poorer block design performance (P = 0.0307). We do not find any association between CNV burden and cognition. Our findings show that the known high-risk CNVs are not only associated with schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders, but are also a contributing factor to impairment in cognitive domains such as memory and perceptual reasoning, and act as intermediate biomarkers of disease risk. ; This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (G0901310) and the Wellcome Trust (grants 085475/B/08/Z, 085475/Z/08/Z). This study was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University College London and by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust at King's College London. Further support to EB: Mental Health Research UK's John Grace QC award, BMA Margaret Temple grants 2016 and 2006, MRC—Korean Health Industry Development Institute Partnering Award (MC_PC_16014), MRC New Investigator Award and a MRC Centenary Award (G0901310), National Institute of Health Research UK post-doctoral fellowship, the Psychiatry Research Trust, the Schizophrenia Research Fund, the Brain and Behaviour Research foundation's NARSAD Young Investigator Awards 2005, 2008, Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at UCLH, and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry King's College London. Further support to co-authors: The Brain and Behaviour Research foundation's (NARSAD's) Young Investigator Award (Grant 22604, awarded to CI). The BMA Margaret Temple grant 2016 to JT. A 2014 European Research Council Marie Curie award to A Díez-Revuelta. HI has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 747429. A Medical Research Council doctoral studentship to JH-S, IA-Z and AB. A Mental Health Research UK studentship to RM. VB is supported by a Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science (200589/Z/16/Z). FWO Senior Clinical Fellowship to RvW. The infrastructure for the GROUP consortium is funded through the Geestkracht programme of the Dutch Health Research Council (ZON-MW, grant number 10-000-1001), and matching funds from participating pharmaceutical companies (Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen Cilag) and universities and mental health care organisations (Amsterdam: Academic Psychiatric Centre of the Academic Medical Centre and the mental health institutions: GGZ Ingeest, Arkin, Dijk en Duin, GGZ Rivierduinen, Erasmus Medical Centre, GGZ Noord Holland Noord. Groningen: University Medical Centre Groningen and the mental health institutions: Lentis, GGZ Friesland, GGZ Drenthe, Dimence, Mediant, GGNet Warnsveld, Yulius Dordrecht and Parnassia psycho-medical centre The Hague. Maastricht: Maastricht University Medical Centre and the mental health institutions: GGZ Eindhoven en De Kempen, GGZ Breburg, GGZ Oost-Brabant, Vincent van Gogh voor Geestelijke Gezondheid, Mondriaan, Virenze riagg, Zuyderland GGZ, MET ggz, Universitair Centrum Sint-Jozef Kortenberg, CAPRI University of Antwerp, PC Ziekeren Sint-Truiden, PZ Sancta Maria Sint-Truiden, GGZ Overpelt, OPZ Rekem. Utrecht: University Medical Centre Utrecht and the mental health institutions Altrecht, GGZ Centraal and Delta). The Santander cohort was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI020499, PI050427, PI060507), SENY Fundació (CI 2005-0308007), Fundacion Ramón Areces and Fundacion Marqués de Valdecilla (API07/011, API10/13). We thank Valdecilla Biobank for providing the biological PAFIP samples and associated data included in this study and for its help in the technical execution of this work; we also thank IDIVAL Neuroimaging Unit for its help in the acquisition and processing of imaging PAFIP data.