Increasing sample diversity in psychiatric genetics - Introducing a new cohort of patients with schizophrenia and controls from Vietnam - Results from a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) of Schizophrenia (SCZ) have provided new biological insights; however, most cohorts are of European ancestry. As a result, derived polygenic risk scores (PRS) show decreased predictive power when applied to populations of different ancestries. We aimed to assess the feasibility of a large-scale data collection in Hanoi, Vietnam, contribute to international efforts to diversify ancestry in SCZ genetic research and examine the transferability of SCZ-PRS to individuals of Vietnamese Kinh ancestry. METHODS: In a pilot study, 368 individuals (including 190 SCZ cases) were recruited at the Hanoi Medical University's associated psychiatric hospitals and outpatient facilities. Data collection included sociodemographic data, baseline clinical data, clinical interviews assessing symptom severity and genome-wide SNP genotyping. SCZ-PRS were generated using different training data sets: (i) European, (ii) East-Asian and (iii) trans-ancestry GWAS summary statistics from the latest SCZ GWAS meta-analysis. RESULTS: SCZ-PRS significantly predicted case status in Vietnamese individuals using mixed-ancestry (R2 liability = 4.9%, p = 6.83 × 10-8), East-Asian (R2 liability = 4.5%, p = 2.73 × 10-7) and European (R2 liability = 3.8%, p = 1.79 × 10-6) discovery samples. DISCUSSION: Our results corroborate previous findings of reduced PRS predictive power across populations, highlighting the importance of ancestral diversity in GWA studies.

Intrinsic and tunable ferromagnetism in Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 through CaFeO3-δ modification.

New (1-x)Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 + xCaFeO3-δ solid solution compounds were fabricated using a sol-gel method. The CaFeO3-δ materials were mixed into host Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 materials to form a solid solution that exhibited similar crystal symmetry to those of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 phases. The random distribution of Ca and Fe cations in the Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 crystals resulted in a distorted structure. The optical band gaps decreased from 3.11 eV for the pure Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 samples to 2.34 eV for the 9 mol% CaFeO3-δ-modified Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 samples. Moreover, the Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 samples exhibited weak photoluminescence because of the intrinsic defects and suppressed photoluminescence with increasing CaFeO3-δ concentration. Experimental and theoretical studies via density functional theory calculations showed that pure Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 exhibited intrinsic ferromagnetism, which is associated with the possible presence of Bi, Na, and Ti vacancies and Ti3+-defect states. Further studies showed that such an induced magnetism by intrinsic defects can also be enhanced effectively with CaFeO3-δ addition. This study provides a basis for understanding the role of secondary phase as a solid solution in Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 to facilitate the development of lead-free ferroelectric materials.