HK researchers take a step towards schizophrenia cure
Hong Kong researchers have identified the fifth gene associated with schizophrenia - a further step to finding an effective treatment for the disease.
It is the first time any gene associated with a complex disease has been pinpointed first in ethnic-Chinese people, prior to being found in other ethnic groups.
Hannah Hong Xue led the team of University of Science and Technology (HKUST) researchers which found the gene. Four other genes associated with schizophrenia have been found in the past decade as scientists race to find the root of the disease and how to treat it.
Dr Xue, an associate professor of biochemistry who specialises in the genetics of schizophrenia, said the discovery did not mean the disease was more prevalent in Chinese people. Statistics show schizophrenia is equally prevalent in different ethnic groups, the researchers said. Close to one in 100 people has the disease.
With the discovery of the fifth gene, the researchers at the university will begin clinical trials on a drug that could be used to treat the disease.
'As long as the causative genes of schizophrenia remain unidentified, medicinal therapies are given on a trial-and-error basis,' Dr Xue said. 'The discovery of the causative genes will open a completely new way to a more effective approach. And when the mechanisms are fully understood, an effective cure and some degree of prevention of schizophrenia will become possible.'
Patients with the disease exhibit symptoms such as delusions, disordered thought, hallucinations, blunted emotions, paranoia and motor abnormalities.
Dr Xue's study was published in the latest issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
Aside from her work in schizophrenia, Dr Xue is also involved in the international project to construct the haplotype map - the next generation of the human genome blueprint. Dr Xue gained her medical degree in Shanghai and a doctorate from the University of Toronto. She joined HKUST in 1995 after two years of post-doctoral work in Glasgow.
