West China Hospital’s research team of Professor Tao Li has published online their latest research findings regarding pharmacological genetics of schizophrenia in an article “Effect of Damaging Rare Mutations in Synapse-Related Gene Sets on Response to Short-term Antipsychotic Medication in Chinese Patients With Schizophrenia” in JAMA Psychiatry (JIF=16.6).
This journal has also invited three world famous experts in psychiatric pharmacology and precision medicine to write featured reviews on this article, highly acclaiming the research work and offering suggestions for this research field in the future.
Originating in young and middle-aged adulthood, Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that torments the patients for life and seriously damages the social function and life quality of patients. At present, the etiology and pathogenesis of schizophrenia remain unknown. The development of new drugs is stalled and there is no precision medicine. Using randomized clinical trials, Professor Tao Li’s team has assessed the 6-week efficacy and adverse reactions of seven antipsychotic drugs in more than 3,000 schizophrenic patients. Moreover, using total exon second-generation sequencing techniques combined with bioinformatics analysis, the team has discovered more rare harmful mutations in the genetic pathways in schizophrenic patients on whom the drugs have poor efficacy. And the discovery was repeated in a large set of independent samples. The results provide strong evidence for the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia and behest the important role of genetic mechanism in combating the efficacy of psychiatric drugs. The results also suggest a new idea for the precision treatment of schizophrenia.
Being a top-notch academic journal in psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry publishes important research work and has a wide range of academic influence in psychiatry. Professor Qiang Wang of West China Hospital is the first author, and Professor Tao Li is the corresponding author. Besides, Xiwen Hu of the Li Ka Shing Medical College of the University of Hong Kong is the co-first author, and Professor Bosong Shen is the co-corresponding author. 32 mental health institutions nationwide have taken part in the joint research project. This research has received support from National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC-RGC Joint Fund, the Ministry of Science and Technology National Thirteen-Five Key Research and Development Project ( Precision Medicine Projet ), Sichuan University Huaxi Hospital Discipline Excellence Development 1.3.5 Project.
