WHY IS THE NIH FUNDING GENETIC RESEARCH INTO ANOREXIA?
The current National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded genetic study of
anorexia nervosa took root in 1996, when the Price Foundation, a private,
European-based foundation, began to investigate the genetics of anorexia
and bulimia nervosa.
An international, multi-site collaboration was formed that has collected
approximately 600 families with two or more members who have anorexia
or bulimia. In the past several years, the collaboration has collected
another set consisting of 700 anorexia trios and 700 control women for
association studies. Linkage analysis of families in these studies has
provided significant evidence for linkage on chromosome 1 and 10 for anorexia
and bulimia. In addition, candidate gene studies have characterized several
genes that may contribute to vulnerabilities for these disorders.
More studies need to be completed because eating disorders are complex
diseases with genetic and environmental components. Like other complex
diseases such as type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, substantial
samples are required to produce definitive linkage regions, and then define
the genes contributing liability.
The promising findings from the Price Foundation studies led the NIH to
award a $10 million grant for the first-ever United States government-funded
genetic study of anorexia to essentially the same group of researchers
involved in the Price Foundation studies.
The grant is funding 11 groups of researchers from North America and Europe
(10 clinical centers and one to analyze data) to find regions of the human
genome that contain genes that influence risk for anorexia. To find these
regions, the researchers will recruit 400 relative pairs – families
with two or more members, mainly siblings, who have or had anorexia nervosa,
and analyze the DNA from the participants.
The 10 clinical centers are the University of Pittsburgh, University of
Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Roseneck Hospital affiliated with the
University of Munich (Germany), University of California Los Angeles,
University Health Network of Toronto General Hospital (Canada), University
of North Dakota, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa, Okla.,
St. Joseph Medical Center, Baltimore and University of Birmingham (England).