A Genetic and Epigenetic Biomarker for Suicide?

The search for biomarkers that accurately predict suicidal behaviors and suicide is a high priority. These researchers conducted a series of studies of a possible biomarker.

First, they performed preliminary DNA methylation studies on prefrontal cortical tissue from people who died by suicide or from other causes. In both neurons and glia in a subgroup of white, depressed suicide cases, researchers identified a promising epigenetic-genetic biomarker — a C for T allele substitution, which permits epigenetic DNA methylation — near the SKA2 gene on chromosome 17. Compared with controls, people who died by suicide had lower SKA2 expression and substantially higher rates of DNA methylation in the SKA2 region. This finding was replicated with samp…