Unveiling the Pathogenesis of Psychiatric Disorders Using Network Models

Psychiatric disorders are complex brain disorders with a high degree of genetic heterogeneity, affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite advances in psychiatric genetics, the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders are still largely elusive, which impedes the development of n...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yanning Zuo, Don Wei, Carissa Zhu, Ormina Naveed, Weizhe Hong, Xia Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
Series:Genes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/7/1101
Description
Summary:Psychiatric disorders are complex brain disorders with a high degree of genetic heterogeneity, affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite advances in psychiatric genetics, the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders are still largely elusive, which impedes the development of novel rational therapies. There has been accumulating evidence suggesting that the genetics of complex disorders can be viewed through an omnigenic lens, which involves contextualizing genes in highly interconnected networks. Thus, applying network-based multi-omics integration methods could cast new light on the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. In this review, we first provide an overview of the recent advances in psychiatric genetics and highlight gaps in translating molecular associations into mechanistic insights. We then present an overview of network methodologies and review previous applications of network methods in the study of psychiatric disorders. Lastly, we describe the potential of such methodologies within a multi-tissue, multi-omics approach, and summarize the future directions in adopting diverse network approaches.
ISSN:2073-4425