Scientists and clinicians who may have hoped that one or a few genes would eventually be identified that, would explain the majority of risk for bipolar disorder must, face the reality that there are likely to be many genes of relatively small effect, involved in bipolar disorder, and the genetic dissection of this disorder will be

a subtle and complex process. Genetic testing for bipolar disorder will likely ultimately require careful weighing of the presence or absence of many gene variants, when counseling is being done at the population level. As specific genes are clearly identified to play a role in bipolar disorder, it remains quite possible Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that, within specific families or clusters, genes of moderate effect will be discovered, but, we must face the fact that, thus far, no clear bipolar disease causing variant, has been discovered in any family studied. In the next, decade, a feasible Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical goal might, be to clearly implicate at, least a handful of genes (through well-powered replication studies or meta-analyses), from which the biochemical pathways underlying the disease can be more thoroughly studied at the level of cell biology and physiology. Such approaches may yield clear pharmacologic targets which can intervene

in disease Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical processes that have their origin in genetic risk variants, at. times by acting on an enzyme or protein that is part, of the biochemical pathway rather than on the gene or gene product, itself.127 It. is likely that over the next, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical decade, the field of bipolar genetics will shift, from the current emphasis on identifying the genes which play a. role in this disease, to understanding the pathophysiology of the disease from a new perspective (ie,by study of the pathways tied to the genes which play a role in the disease). Along with this work, we might also cautiously expect, that bipolar disorder may at. last begin to be understood to be a complex behavioral phenotype, with many components and subtypes. For a. “disorder” that involves Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical some of

the fundamental selleck chemicals llc behaviors and experiences of relevance to the human race, including regulation of activity levels, the ability to feel euphoria and dysphoria, to control social impulses, to create, to have racing thoughts, and to over- or undervalue one’s capacities, it is perhaps not surprising that the molecular underpinnings of the bipolar condition will prove to be complex AV-951 and subtle, and span a. multiplicity of gene and protein networks. Indeed, the gene variants which contribute to bipolar disorder may have evolved because of their specific value in helping individuals or selleck kinase inhibitor groups adapt to socially and physically challenging and changing environments.128 To understand the genetics of bipolar disorder may in the end, not be any less of a. task than to understand the genetics of human psychology and behavior.