74041 Scientists from the universities of Granada (Spain) and Washington in St Louis (US) have found that there is not a single type of schizophrenia, but that it consists of a group made up of eight genetically different types of diseases, each of which presents its own set of symptoms.

This important find, published recently by the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry, could be an important first step towards a better diagnosis and treatment of this disease, which affects approximately 1% of world population.

It was known so far that approximately 80% of the risk of suffering from schizophrenia was hereditary, although scientists have struggled for years to identify which specific genes lead to it.

This new research, in which 4196 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia participated, has for the first time identified the different genes networks that contribute to the existence of eight different types of schizophrenia. In this research other 3200 healthy patients participated as control group.

Genes function as an orchestra

«Genes do not operate on their own, in an isolated manner», Igor Zwir, a researcher at the university of Granada and co-author of his article, pointed out, «they rather work with each other as an orchestra. To understand how they work, we must not just know what each member of this orchestra is like, but also how they interact with each other».

«What we did with this research, after a decade of frustration in the field of psychiatric genetics, is identify the manner in which the genes interact with each other, in an orchestrated manner in the case of healthy patients, or disorganized, as happens in the cases that lead to the different types of schizophrenia», claim the authors of the publication.

Thus, in some patients with hallucinations or delirium, for instance, researchers agree that there are different networks of genes related to their respective symptoms, which demonstrates that specific genetic variations interact with each other. This genetic analysis leads to 95% certainty in predicting the onset of schizophrenia. In another group, they found that incongruent speech and disorganized behaviour are specifically associated with a DNA variations network that leads to a 100% risk of suffering schizophrenia.

Researchers divided the patients according to the type and seriousness of positive symptoms (such as different types of hallucinations or deliriums), or negative symptoms (such as lack of initiative, troubles in organizing thoughts, or lack of connection between emotion and thought). In parallel, scientists classified the profiles of these symptoms into eight qualitative types of different diseases according to the underlying genetic conditions.

Individual genes

«In the past, scientists had searched for associations between individual genes and schizophrenia–researchers point out. What was lacking was the idea that these genes do not act independently, but that they work as a group instead, to disturb the structure and the functions of the brain, thus causing the disease.»

Although individual genes only present weak, inconsistent associations with schizophrenia, the interaction networks of gene groups pose a high risk of suffering from the disease, between 70 and 100%, «which makes it almost impossible that individuals with those genetic variation networks will avoid schizophrenia»

Researchers found a total of 42 genes groups that influenced in a variety of ways the risk of suffering schizophrenia. They also replicated their finds in two independent samples of individuals with schizophrenia, an index that these networks are a valid path for the exploration and improvement of the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Profesor Zwir points out that, by identifying these genes networks and their adjustment within the symptoms in individual patients, ‘it will soon be possible to determine a possible localized treatment for the specific paths that cause schizophrenia» and he emphasizes the fact that this work, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, «has been performed and designed by researchers in the field of Computational Science».

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74555 he researchers have managed to modify a type of lactose protein called β-lactoglobulin artificially by means of a treatment with pulsed light. This protein, which is present in lactose serum, is responsible for approximately 10% of milk-related allergies. As a result of this treatment, milk becomes much more digestible.

Julia Maldonado-Valderrama, a researcher at the University of Granada involved in this project, explains that β-lactoglobulin is difficult to digest because this protein has a compact and complex structure that resists enzymatic processing during digestion. «This complexity is nevertheless necessary for proteins to fulfil their structural function as stabilizing agents of emulsions or foams.»

One way to facilitate the digestion of proteins could be to break up or dismantle their structure. However, if the structure of the protein is severely degraded it loses is functional properties.

Modify the proteins

«In this project, which has been published in the journal Soft Matter, we have used a type of lactose protein modified by means of a treatment with pulsed light, a method of bacterial inactivation which is widely used in the food industry, but never before used to modify proteins». This process, patented by the team at the Azti-Tecnalia technology centre, degrades the structure of the protein by increasing the amount of light pulses.

With this method, scientists confirmed that, first, the functional properties of the protein are not affected by the pulsed light treatment. «We actually demonstrated that in some cases pulsed light even improves the emulsive properties of lactose protein», Maldonado-Valderrama points out. «We then studied the effects of this pulsed light modified protein upon digestion».

In order to do so the researchers employed a device designed and built at the University of Granada, called Octopus, which simulates the digestive process of a protein in a single drop of emulsion. Thus, the simulation of the digestive process demonstrated that the pulsed light treatment facilitates digestion of this protein, in particular in the small intestine.

«Finding a way of improving the digestibility of proteins without altering their functional properties is a current challenge within food technology and, in this respect, the pulsed light treatment is a very promising tool when it comes to the design of low-allergy food products», the University of Granada researcher concludes.

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