Visitors to the Bipolar Blog may be interested in a recent article written by Amanda Gardner, HealthDay reporter for U.S. News and World Report, entitled “Common Gene Mutation Lowers Risk for Bipolar Disorder.”
The article highlights results from a recent study published in the September 30, 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggesting that a relatively common gene mutation may protect people from developing bipolar disorder. The study, entitled “A common variant in the 3?UTR of the GRIK4 glutamate receptor gene affects transcript abundance and protects against bipolar disorder,” reports that a missing section of DNA in GRIK4 gene provides the protection.
This opens the possibility that the genetic link to bipolar disorder may be more complicated than we had previously thought. In addition to having a combination of genes that may contribute to establishing one’s vulnerability to bipolar disorder, we may now be looking at a scenario in which certain genes make a person more vulnerable to bipolar while other genes make one less vulnerable.
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