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Gene alterations could help develop blood test to predict suicide

A blood test for suicide risk could be developed from a chemical alteration in a single human gene linked to stress reactions, according to recent study findings.

“Suicide is a major preventable public health problem, but we have been stymied in our prevention efforts because we have no consistent way to predict those who are at increased risk of killing themselves,” Zachary Kaminsky, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatric and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a press release. “With a test like ours, we may be able to stem suicide rates by identifying those people and intervening early enough to head off a catastrophe.”

Zachary Kaminsky

Kaminsky and colleagues conducted a series of experiments focusing on a genetic mutation in the gene SKA2. Using samples from mentally ill and healthy people, researchers found that levels of SKA2 were significantly reduced in people who died by suicide.

In some participants, an epigenetic modification altered the way the SKA2 gene functioned without changing the DNA sequence. Through the modification genes, methyl groups were added to the gene and higher levels of methylation were found in the participants who died by suicide.

Three different sets of blood samples also were tested, and similar methylation increases at SKA2 were found in participants with suicidal thoughts or attempts. Researchers were able to develop a model analysis to predict participants experiencing suicidal thoughts or who had attempted suicide with 80% certainty and those with a more severe risk with a 90% accuracy.

“We have found a gene that we think could be really important for consistently identifying a range of behaviors from suicidal thoughts to attempts to completions,” Kaminsky said. “We need to study this in a larger sample, but we believe that we might be able to monitor blood to identify those at risk of suicide.”

Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the Center for Mental Health Initiatives, The James Wah Award for Mood Disorders, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health, and The Solomon R. and Rebecca D. Baker Foundation.