A New Approach To Exploring The Genetics Of Suicidal Behaviour

"A deeper understanding of the biology of suicidal behavior may facilitate the development of new pharmacological interventions that could be targeted at vulnerable individuals, potentially saving thousands of lives," say Jonathan Savitz and colleagues from the University of Cape Town. Identifying the genes that contribute to the risk for suicidal behavior is an integral part of this process, say the authors.



While "tantalizing genetic clues" are beginning to emerge on the genetics of suicide, they say, research on this topic has been hindered by problems such as the difficulty in replicating data. They outline a new approach to exploring the genetics of suicidal behavior--"endophenotyping."



Endophenotyping involves trying to identify an intermediate trait that lies somewhere on the developmental pathway from genes to phenotype. If suicide is the phenotype of interest--the final product of different genetic and environmental factors--then the "endophenotype" is a more elementary trait that is tightly correlated with suicide. "An understanding of the molecular basis of the endophenotype," say Savitz and colleagues, "should theoretically be the first step towards the larger prize: uncovering the molecular basis of the phenotype itself." The authors discuss the possibility that personality traits could be an endophenotype for investigating the genetic basis of suicidal behavior.







Citation: Savitz JB, Cupido C-L, Ramesar RS (2006) Trends in suicidology: Personality as an endophenotype for molecular genetic investigations. PLoS Med 3(5): e107.



PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: dx.doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030107



CONTACT:

Jonathan Savitz

University of Cape Town

Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine

UCT/MRC Human Genetics Research Unit

Observatory 7925

Cape Town, South Africa

jscormack.uct.ac.za



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