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Updated: Aug 14, 2025

A Strategy to Identify de Novo Mutations in Common Disorders such as Autism and Schizophrenia
Published on: June 15, 2011
Treatment Resistance in Schizophrenia Is Associated with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Gut Microbiota:
Bolun Cheng1, Shiqiang Cheng2, Chun'e Li2
1Key Laboratory of Trace Elements and Endemic Diseases of National Health and Family Planning Commission, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases of Ministry of Education of China, Collaborative Innovation Center of Endemic Disease and Health Promotion for Silk Road Region, School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China, boluncheng@xjtu.edu.cn.
Introduction:
Observational studies highlight associations of common diseases with individual schizophrenia symptoms. However, it is unclear whether these diseases are associated with individual treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). We aimed to explore the genetic associations between common immune diseases, metabolic diseases, psychiatric disorders, gut microbiota and TRS.
Methods:
Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data of European participants (n = ∼456,327) included TRS, 11 psychiatric disorders, 23 immune and metabolic diseases, body mass index, height, and 211 gut microbiota. In this genetic correlation and two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study, linkage disequilibrium score (LDSC) regression was applied to infer genetic correlation estimates. Two-sample MR tested potential causal associations of genetic variants associated with common immune diseases, metabolic diseases, psychiatric disorders, and gut microbiota with TRS.
Results:
LDSC revealed candidate associations between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, intestinal infectious diseases, obesity and TRS (genetic correlation range, 0.230-0.702; p < 0.05). Two-sample MR analyses suggested that ADHD was positively associated with TRS (estimate [SE] = 0.204 [0.073], p = 0.005), a finding that remained stable across statistical models. Besides, schizophrenia and genus Barnesiella levels were causally associated with TRS but not consistent across MR approaches.
Conclusion:
This study reports genetic correlations between ADHD, schizophrenia, intestinal infectious diseases, obesity and TRS. The study also found that genus Barnesiella was associated with TRS. These findings may have clinical implications, highlighting the possible strategy for TRS prevention.
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