A new U.S. study has discovered that there is a relation between certain genetic variations and brain tissue mutations, and people with schizophrenia.

Before this time, these slight and delicate brain tissue mutations have not been able to be revealed, but because of new improvements in gene scanning technology, they seem to be associated with the disease, and they may clarify how the disease is caused.

The researchers have not been capable of detecting a common theme for known mutations in genes and the disease (schizophrenia) until now.

Schizophrenia, a debilitating psychiatric trouble, affects around 1% of the world’s population. The people with schizophrenia suffer from hallucinations, delusions, and unsystematic thinking, and are at risk for strange or odd behaviors. The disease deeply affects communal and work-related functioning and has massive public health costs.

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory together with fellow workers at the University of Washington and the National Institute of Mental Health have been working on the matter. They analyzed a variety of blood samples from 158 schizophrenia patients, plus 268 people that do not have any psychiatric problem.

The research group used a high-resolution gene scanning technique, which study the complete human DNA map. The scan looks particularly for variations plus unusual mutations that interfered with gene function.

The group saw 53 different mutation instances, and they found that multiple, individually rare mutations took place over thrice frequently among persons with schizophrenia. In a similar study that was issued recently, 83 people suffering from a rare form of childhood schizophrenia were also four times as likely to have the gene mutation present.

The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Science.’

Jonathan Sebat, senior author of Cold Spring Harbor said, “This part of our findings indicates something we didn't know before: that rare structural mutations in genes, while present in both healthy people and people with schizophrenia, are much more likely to occur among people with the illness.”

“This suggests a previously unknown role for rare mutations in the causation of schizophrenia,” Mr. Sebat added.