Identifying Novel Target Genes in Psychotic Disorder Network Association Analyses

Many believe that unique genes for schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are associated with the susceptibility for the respective illnesses. To explore this idea, gene expression profiling (GEP) studies of “whole” hippocampus (HIPP) have been performed on a cohort consisting of SZs, BDs and normal controls and the data have been interrogated using a combination of a global functional analysis of biopathways/clusters and network association analysis. Overall, it appears that BDs may show a down-regulation of genes associated with growth pathways and their receptors. Such changes may mitigate against cell survival and potentially even facilitate apoptotic injury in subjects with BD.