Abstract

AGUILAR-VALLES, ARGEL. Identification of Genetic Factors in the Etiology of Schizophrenia. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.3, pp.129-138. ISSN 0120-548X.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects approximately 1% of the worldwide population. It is characterized by psychotic episodes in which individuals have hallucinations or delusions. This disorder also involves a strong element of social dysfunction, lack of motivation and profound cognitive deficits. The causes of this disorder remain largely unknown, but evidence indicates that arises from changes in the development of the central nervous system. Among the identified risk factors for this disorder are several environmental events, including prenatal infections and malnutrition, and complications during childbirth. However, the most important factor seems to be genetics. Despite this, the identification of genes involved in the development of this disorder has emerged as one of the most difficult tasks facing modern genetics and genomics. The development of techniques for studying the human genome has allowed a more systematic approach to determine variations in the genome sequence and structure that area casually involved in schizophrenia. These studies suggest the participation of hundreds of genes in schizophrenia development. In addition, it has been suggested that many of these genes are involved in various mental illnesses that today are diagnosed as separate entities, but whose biological substrate may be shared.

Keywords : schizophrenia; deletions; development; duplications; polymorphisms.

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