From genes to therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders – what to expect?

Neuropsychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, autism and mood disorders represent one of the leading causes of disability. The cost of bringing a drug to the market is increasing and becoming more risky. Pharmaceutical investments in neuroscience are decreasing. At the same time we are facing an unprecedented rate of discovery in human genetics. Genes predisposing for common diseases including psychiatric disorders are being identified. The knowledge derived from the identification of genes relevant for psychiatric disorders holds the promise of providing truly innovative therapeutic interventions. The process of approving new psychiatric drugs, is however complex, lengthy and requires a well orchestrated and funded effort of multiple disciplines. In this article a brief overview of the key learning obtained from the conduction genome-wide association studies, thus far, is given in an attempt to provide a realistic view on the potential contribution of human genetics to drug discovery in psychiatry.

► Developing drugs in psychiatry is challenging; lack of efficacy is the main reason why drugs fail to reach the patients. ► Improving the quality of drug targets is considered to have a large impact in the fate of drugs. ► Identifying targets involved in the disease aetiology using human genetic studies will help identifying novel drugs. ► Genome-wide association studies have begun identifying risk genes unequivocally associated with psychiatric disorders. ► Genetic risk factors are beginning to point to new disease pathways that will lead to the identification of new targets.