There are a range of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social phobia, agoraphobia and others. In humans, identifying genes that predispose people to anxiety is difficult. Because of this, mice have been studied to identify genes to in turn look for in humans. In the study “An Association Analysis of Murine Anxiety Genes in Humans Implicates Novel Candidate Genes for Anxiety Disorders,” 17 genes were identified through studying seven brain regions with gene expression profiling. And variations in 13 of these genes were tested as candidate genes in a study that examined the link between genes and human anxiety disorders. A population-based Finnish study was conducted with 321 patients and 653 control subjects, 30 years of age and older.
To select which of these genes were associated with anxiety, the 13 candidate genes were examined against 139 genes that differentiate by only a single nucleotide known as single nucleotide polymorphisms. After identifying associating genes 69 more single nucleotide polymorphisms were selected from these. The combined 208 single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped and eight were chosen to be studied at length. The eight were chosen because they either had two or more markers in the gene had a high probability in allele-based association tests or there was a great probability of a haplotype - an allele combination on a chromosome- associated with it.
Six genes that were found to be correlated to anxiety in mice were also found to do the same in humans: ALAD, CDH2, DYNLL2, EPB41L4A, PSAP and PTGDS. The most significant associations were between ALAD and social phobia, DYNLL2 and GAD and PSAP and panic disorder. However ALAD was also shown to correlate to phobic anxieties, CDH2 to social phobia, DYNLL2 and PTGDS to GAD, EPB41L4A was shown to correlate with several anxiety disorders but most significantly with GAD and PSAP was shown to be associated with panic disorder.
This article was interesting because to be able to pinpoint a gene or a set of genes that controls anxiety is astounding. Everyone has some sort of anxiety, and some anxiety is good and actually required for dealing with situations in life. It is needed to function. But for people who have one or more anxiety disorders it is difficult to deal with. Using mice to figure out what genes to look for in humans is resourceful. This research is locating the genes that cause anxiety and has the potential in the future to allow researchers to figure out how to manipulate the genes to alleviate major anxiety symptoms.
Hollie
I find the study in this article very interesting as well. I work in a pharmacy, and to see the number of people come in that get some type of drug for anxiety is outstanding. I would love to see developments in this area arise and take place in our world and maybe get some of these people off the medications they are taking constantly. It would also be interesting to see how many people actually have some alteration of genes versus how many people the doctors just hand out prescriptions to just because they get upset about something. I do wonder though how great an idea it is to manipulate genes?
ReplyDelete~Erin Hodges
I have general anxiety disorder and take antidepressants to help reduce it. If it becomes possible to determine if the anxiety is a result of a gene and not some other outside source I believe it would be a great idea to manipulate genes to cure anxiety disorders. As for me, when my anxiety gets really bad it makes me sick. To be able to potentially cure these types of disorders would make not only my life better but also the other portion of people who have to endure these ailments.
ReplyDeleteRoss
I agree with the last comment. Perhaps we do not completely understand the extent of the consequences of manipulating genetics...But it has benefitted agriculture in many ways, and if it can potentially b the cure for a medical problem it is hard to avoid. Although controversal, I believe we should proceed with this field of genetics and see where it takes us. As long as we heed caution, it may do more good than harm.
ReplyDelete(The last comment was made by Sarah R...)
ReplyDeleteWhether gene manipulation is right or wrong is a matter of opinion. If it can improve a person's life for the better and alleviate anxiety disorders, I think it would be beneficial. This research however is still in it's infancy. They are still discovering which genes are contributing to anxiety and how much. Whether it turns out gene manipulation can help or not is still to be determined. Hollie
ReplyDeleteI find this blog interesting not only on how researchers can find anxiety genes, but also that they only tested people above 30 years of age. Do they not think college students suffer from anxiety? I like the article because it makes you think if anxiety is hereditary or not. It also compares our genes to that of mice. By: Jessica Foley
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