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. These sequences, known as human endogenous retroviruses , date back hundreds of thousands to millions of years – with some evensuggests that some ancient viral DNA sequences in the human genome play a role in susceptibility to psychiatric disorders such asduring our evolutionary past.
Initial research suggested that Hervs regulate the expression of neighbouring genes with important biological functions. One example of this is a Herv that regulates the expression of a gene involved in. These molecules have the potential to exert a wide range of functions, as they can travel across cellular compartments to execute different roles.
We found that that the expression of four Hervs was linked with genetic susceptibility to major psychiatric disorders. The expression of two of these Hervs was associated with schizophrenia, one Herv with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and one with There are many genes involved in psychiatric disorders – and Hervs are only a part of this puzzle. Although the precise impact of these Hervs on brain cells and on a person's susceptibility to certain psychiatric disorders requires further research, our study is the first to show that genetic susceptibility for a psychiatric disorder also acts through these ancient viral DNA sequences.
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