Shortened telomere in unremitted schizophrenia. Issue 5 (12th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kota, Lakshmi Narayanan; Purushottam, Meera; Moily, Nagaraj S.; Jain, Sanjeev
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences. Volume 69:Issue 5(2015:May)
• Page Start: 292
• Page End: 297
• Publication Date: 2015-01-12
• Subjects: biological psychiatry -- genetics in psychiatry -- real‐time polymerase chain reaction -- schizophrenia -- telomere shortening; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12260
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1323-1316

Abstract

Abstract : Aim: Telomere attrition has been noted in many neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative syndromes, and may indicate a shared molecular pathology across conditions. We evaluated telomere length in subjects with remitted and unremitted schizophrenia and in control subjects. Methods: We measured telomere length as relative telomere/single‐copy gene ratios in subjects with schizophrenia ( n = 71) using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. This was compared with relative telomere/single‐copy gene ratios in age‐matched controls without neuropsychiatric illness ( n = 73). Results: The relative telomere/single‐copy gene ratios were significantly lower in subjects with unremitted schizophrenia when compared with control subjects (r = −0.281, P = 0.003), as well as the individuals with remitted schizophrenia. Conclusion: The lower relative telomere length in unremitted schizophrenia subjects may thus indicate shared biological pathways with other neurodegenerative disorders that are also characterized by increased cellular senescence.