[tri-med] FYI - Gene Found for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Gene Found for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Thu Oct 23, 1:15 PM ET  Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Thursday 
they had found a genetic mutation that causes obsessive-compulsive 
disorder and other mental illnesses and said some patients had a 
second mutation that made their conditions worse. 

The rare finding could make it easier to discover good treatments for 
the disorder, one of the top 10 leading causes of disability 
worldwide. 

Dr. Norio Ozaki of Fujita Health University School of Medicine in 
Toyoake, Japan and colleagues at several U.S. institutions -- 
including the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University -- worked 
on the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. 

The gene is called the human serotonin transporter gene, hSERT, and 
helps control how the body uses serotonin, a message-carrying 
chemical or neurotransmitter linked with mood. 

Some anxiety drugs and antidepressants target serotonin, but the 
researchers said patients with the mutations are not helped by these 
drugs. 

"In all of molecular medicine, there are few known instances where 
two variants within one gene have been found to alter the expression 
and regulation of the gene in a way that appears associated with 
symptoms of a disorder," said Dr. Dennis Murphy of the National 
Institute of Mental Health, who worked on the study. 

The researchers analyzed DNA from 170 people, including 30 patients 
with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 30 with eating disorders 
such as anorexia and 30 with seasonal affective disorder -- which can 
cause depression and other symptoms in dark winter months. 

They also looked at the DNA of 80 healthy people. 

A specific mutation in the hSERT gene was seen in two patients with 
OCD and their families, but not in other patients. 

With such a rare mutation showing up, the researchers believe it is 
likely to be found in other families with OCD and related disorders. 

They interviewed relatives of the patients and found 6 of the 7 
people with the mutation had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and 
some also had anorexia, Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of 
autism, social phobia or were abusers of alcohol. 

A second mutation was found in hSERT in two patients, giving them 
a "double dose." The patients and their siblings had especially 
difficult to treat versions of OCD, the researchers said. 


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