Recently, the team led by Professor Liu Chunyu and Associate Research Fellow Chen Chao, from the School of Life Sciences of CSU, published a large sample-size human study “Sex-differential DNA methylation and associated regulation networks in human brain implicated in the sex-biased risks of psychiatric disorders” in the International top journalMolecular Psychiatry(IF=11.64, JCR Q1, Nature Index Journal). Dr. Xia Yan, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Life Sciences of CSU, is the first author, Professor Liu Chunyu and Chen Chen are co-corresponding authors, and the School of Life Sciences of CSU is the unit of the first author and the corresponding authors. The undergraduate students (eight-year program), Xu Yuchen, Li Honglei and Jing Xi, from the School of Medicine of CSU, participated in the study as co-authors.
There are significant gender differences in the incidence of mental illness, and the study on the mechanism of gender differences is expected to provide evidence for understanding the pathogenesis of mental illness. At the same time, only by understanding the nature of gender differences can we better provide patients with personalized treatment schemes. The study started with DNA methylation, followed by DNA methylation analysis of 1408 brain tissue samples donated after death, and then constructed a gender-discriminant regulation network in combination with genetic mutation, gene expression and protein interaction network. It found that gender differentiation lies almost in risk genes for schizophrenia, autism and major depression. The study also interpreted the gender differences in mental illness from the methylation regulation network, and systematically explored its role in the pathogenesis of mental illness.
This is another new scientific development made by Liu Chunyu-Chen Chao's team following the publication of the series papers inSciencelast year. The team has long been committed to the genetic and epigenetic study on mental diseases using bioinformatics methods, combined with the latest experimental techniques to explore the pathogenesis of mental illness.
The study was supported by a number of funds such as the Young Scientist Program and General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the National Key R&D Program of China, the Central South University Innovation Drive Program, and the fund from National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Source: School of Life Sciences
