Scientists have learned using a blood test to identify a person's suicidal tendency

Researchers from different countries for many years trying to find a way to prevent suicide. It seems that the researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical University have finally managed to achieve serious results in this direction.

Research team research results university were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Scientists managed to find in the blood of a person a certain determinant, common to all suicides, as well as for those people who often think about suicide. A common feature is the unique mutation in the SKA2 gene, which, as scientists believe, plays an important role in the process of experiencing severe stress on the human brain.

“The SKA2 gene is very important for the normal functioning of human stress receptors,” says Zachary Kaminsky, research director, assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Hopkins University.

Kaminsky and his team became interested in the SKA2 gene after they compared the genomes of healthy and mentally ill people. It turned out that in the case when a person committed suicide, the level of SKA2 in his body was significantly reduced. After that, the scientists also found out that this gene in the body of suicides was highly modified. The main DNA sequence has not changed, so this form of mutation significantly changed the way the SKA2 gene functions. The more pronounced the mutation of this gene is, the higher the likelihood that a person will commit suicide.

You can track gene mutations through special molecular markers, the so-called methyl groups. Methyl groups act as switches in different genes and their presence or absence strongly influences human behavior.

A group of researchers has developed a special model with which it is possible to accurately determine the presence of a SKA2 gene mutation using only human blood analysis. During the test, 325 people were examined. The scientists managed with an 80% chance of finding out who among the subjects was thinking about suicide or even trying to kill himself. Among young people, the accuracy of the analysis was even higher - about 96%.

Researchers will continue to improve their methods of identifying the risk of suicide, and it may very well be that physicians will indeed succeed in preventing someone's death in the very near future.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/research-development/uchyonye-nauchilis-s-pomoshhyu-analiza-krovi-vyyavlyat-sklonnost-cheloveka-k-suicidu.html.