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DNA methylation in schizophrenia: progress and challenges

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  • Life & Medical Sciences
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder broadly accepted being caused by genetic and environmental factors. Although conventional genetic studies have identified some candidate genes for schizophrenia, low odds ratios and penetrance, and a lack of reproducibility have limited their explanatory power. Despite the major efforts made toward identifying environmental factors in schizophrenia, methodological limitations and inconsistent findings of epidemiological reports have obstructed attempts to identify exogenous causal factors. Epigenetic mechanisms, mediating between environment and genes, have recently been proposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. DNA methylation is the most stable and well-characterized epigenetic modification. In this paper, we briefly introduce DNA methylation mechanisms, genome-wide DNA methylation studies, and identify specific genomic methylation sites in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The outline candidate genes such as Reelin and COMT, are also outlined before paying attention to the conundrum of recent researches.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271484 and 81471361 to X.C, 30900486 and 81371480 to J.T) and the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (2012CB517904 to X.C).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, 410011, China

    Xiaofen Zong, Maolin Hu, Zongchang Li, Xiaogang Chen & Jinsong Tang

  2. Unit on Statistical Genomics, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, 20852, USA

    Hongbao Cao

  3. Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, 410011, China

    Xiaogang Chen

  4. National Technology of Institute of Psychiatry, Central South University, Changsha, 410011, China

    Xiaogang Chen

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  1. Xiaofen Zong
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  2. Maolin Hu
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  3. Zongchang Li
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  4. Hongbao Cao
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  5. Xiaogang Chen
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Correspondence to Xiaogang Chen or Jinsong Tang.

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Zong, X., Hu, M., Li, Z. et al. DNA methylation in schizophrenia: progress and challenges. Sci. Bull. 60, 149–155 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0690-y

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