Researchers have uncovered two new genes that are connected to schizophrenia and found that a third gene that was previously tied to the condition may possibly be connected to autism.

A meta-analysis that compared the gene sequences of 107,877 individuals without schizophrenia against 35,828 individuals with the illness helped identify the genes.

The study expands on a publication released the previous year that listed 10 genes with uncommon variations that are directly associated with schizophrenia risk. However, that study, like the majority of earlier genetic analyses on psychiatric disorders, used DNA from persons with European ancestry.

This new study has the most ethnically varied schizophrenia genetics study to date because almost 40% of the genetic samples included in it were from individuals with non-European heritage. Based on their findings, researchers came to the conclusion that uncommon genetic variants on both the newly discovered genes they identified and previously known genes carry a risk of schizophrenia that is constant across racial and ethnic groups.

Researchers believe that some patients' cases of schizophrenia may be caused by rare protein-truncating variants (PTVs) found in the newly discovered genes SRRM2 and AKAP11. The findings might have a big impact on how drugs are developed.

Senior investigator Alexander Charney, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, genetics and genomic sciences, neuroscience and neurosurgery, at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City said ,"It's not curing the illness, but it is taking us a step closer so that we're able to say that this may be the cause of the illness in a particular patient."