Epigenetics may hold clue to suicide risk

People who are prone to suicide may have genetic alterations in their brains that could one day be identified by a diagnostic test, a Canadian study says. It also found that childhood abuse may cause neurological changes that could impact how critical genes express themselves in an area of the brain responsible for mood and stress, says the McGill University paper.

The groundbreaking study was published yesterday in the online journal Public Library of Science. Moshe Szyf, a professor of pharmacology at McGill, says his team examined the brains of 13 Quebec men who committed suicide to look for differences in their neurological DNA. They found that the chemical coating on the DNA that tells its chromosome genes how and when to work – the so-called epigenetic component – was altered in the 13 men, all of whom had a history of childhood abuse. "The genetics we inherit, these are the letters of the book of life," says Szyf, the study's principal author. "The epigenetics are actually the punctuation marks of this book."

In the case of the suicide victims, Szyf believes the troubled childhoods of the suicide victims started a "cascade" of significant biochemical reactions in their brains. Further research will be needed, but Szyf said the findings suggest it may be possible to test a living person's blood to see if the telltale epigenetic changes are present. Towards that goal, Szyf says scientists can now study people who have shown suicidal tendencies to see if there are differences in their blood-borne immune systems that would suggest the brain alterations.Szyf says if people could be identified as high risk, they might be treated psychologically or chemically to mitigate their suicidal tendencies.

Szyf says the study's main contribution is to show that environmental factors can change the epigenetic programming in humans, as well as animals.

Steve - amen.