Brief Report: Genetic Links Between Autism and Suicidal Behavior-A Preliminary Investigation.
Emily DiBlasi, Anne V Kirby, Eoin Gaj and 4 others
PMID 32096122WHAT IT FOUND
A preliminary genetic analysis found eight genes linked to both autism and suicidal behavior, including GRIN2B and PTEN.
The genes suggest shared brain and nerve-cell pathways, not a clinical test or treatment.
Key findings
01Comparing 91 high-ranked autism-associated genes with 285 high-ranked suicidal behavior-associated genes identified eight overlapping genes.
02Two of the eight overlapping genes, GRIN2B and PTEN, have the highest ranking for autism association in the SFARI Gene database.
03Enrichment tests found nine biological process gene sets and 14 cellular component gene sets involving six of the eight overlapping genes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a preliminary database analysis, not a clinical study of people with autism or suicidal behavior. It depends on existing prioritized gene lists, so it can only examine genes already known and may omit relevant genes. Autism and suicidal behavior are heterogeneous, and the studies used to build the gene lists may define suicidal behavior differently. The gene overlaps and pathways are hypotheses about biology, not evidence of risk, diagnosis, or treatment response.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work used publicly available databases and existing published literature; no human participants or animals were studied.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that a genetic test can identify suicide risk in autistic patients. It is a preliminary database analysis of known genes, not a clinical study, and it reports no patient outcomes.