Special Report

Genotype-based prevention of psychosis onset and schizophrenia: a personalized approach in a target population

* Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: b.taneri@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Department of Biological Sciences, Program of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Cyprus

Institute for Public Health Genomics, Cluster of Genetics & Cell Biology, Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

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Mevhibe B Hocaoglu

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Cyprus

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Angela Brand

Institute for Public Health Genomics, Cluster of Genetics & Cell Biology, Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

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Jim van Os

Department of Psychiatry, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

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Published Online:23 Apr 2014https://doi.org/10.2217/pme.13.103

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Abstract

Schizophrenia imposes a significant burden on public health, affecting approximately 25 million individuals worldwide and generating an extensive healthcare burden. It is important to consider that the disease onset in schizophrenia stems from gene–environment interactions. Early interventions in order to prevent schizophrenia are of high clinical interest, and this is where personalized healthcare and medicine comes in. In this article, we bring a genotype-based personalized, preventive perspective to psychosis onset and schizophrenia. Our objective relies on the possibility of making use of a specific gene–environment interaction in the emergence of schizophrenia as a personalized preventive tool. In particular, we discuss screening of a specific AKT1 allelic variation and its interaction with cannabis use as a preventive approach in a target population with early symptoms of psychosis.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest •• of considerable interest

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Vol. 11, No. 2

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Published online 23 April 2014

Published in print March 2014

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Financial & competing interests disclosure

J van Os acknowledges support by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F2-2009-241909 (Project EU-GEI). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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