By Christine Lehmann Two for-profit companies, one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast, are working to identify the underlying genes that cause certain psychiatric disorders. The goal is to develop new drugs that will reverse the disease process. Psychiatric Genomics Inc., housed along the biotechnology corridor of Gaithersburg, Md., a few miles north of Washington, D. C., is looking for the underlying genes that cause schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism. The study of genes and how they function in disorders was facilitated by the completion of the human genome map last fall. DNA information from families with psychiatric disorders is stored on thumbnail-sized, silicon computer chips and rapidly scanned by researchers.
Scientists look for links between genetic markers and the disease.
They then compare the DNA structure of a suspect gene with the structure of a gene from a healthy individual. To understand how the gene works, they analyze its chemical structure and identify what it produces for example, a neurotransmitter or an enzyme. Once the chemical product is identified, researchers can begin developing drug compounds that alter the genetic process, according to Palfreyman. For example, a finding that led to the discovery of the first antidepressant occurred about 50 years ago when a physician noticed that patients being treated for tuberculosis with certain drugs experienced striking improvements in their mood, according to Palfreyman. Karoly Nikolich, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of AGY Therapeutics, a biotech research company in San Francisco, is equally excited about using animal models to diagnose the genetic causes of depression and schizophrenia in human beings and treat them with new drugs.