SYRACUSE - Dr. Yanli Zhang-James, a research assistant professor of psychiatry at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, will use a two-year, $60,000 grant to further study child psychiatric disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and autism.
Zhang-James will study the role of SLC9A9 in the development and function of brain cells in genetically engineered mice. She states, “I hope this research can lead us to a better understanding of the causes for both ADHD and autism, and help us to discover novel therapeutic strategies for the children who suffer from both disorders, especially children who have co-occurrences of both sets of symptoms who may respond poorly to the standard ADHD treatments.”
Family, twin, and adoption studies show that genes play a substantial role in the etiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but the genetic architecture of the disorder is unknown. “The shared genetic variants are unique windows that can lead us to understanding of some common mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of the different disorders, shed light into common biological pathways that are fundamentally important for normal neurodevelopmental processes” said Zhang-James.
Recent research conducted by Markunas et al (2010) shows SLC9A9 is located on chromosome 3q24 and has been suggested as a strong candidate for ADHD because it is located at a translocation breakpoint in a family having multiple cases of ADHD. Furthermore, polymorphisms in the SLC9A9 gene are thought to be involved in the onset of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In sum, these findings identify novel genetic associations at viable ADHD candidate genes and provide confirmatory evidence for associations at previous candidate genes. The association with SLC9A9 is particularly interesting as it was recently implicated in a genome-wide association study for ADHD. Replication of these results is necessary in order to confirm the proposed disease susceptibility loci.
Resouces:
Markunas, C. A., Quinn, K. S., Collins, A. L., Garrett, M. E., Lachiewicz, A. M., Sommer, J. L., & ... Ashley-Koch, A. E. (2010). Genetic variants in SLC9A9 are associated with measures of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in families. Psychiatric Genetics, 20(2), 73-81. doi:10.1097/YPG.0b013e3283351209
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