ABSTRACT
Schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders are characterized by developmental changes that manifest early in life and during adolescence and whose pathogenesis may imply events concerning placenta biology and altered maturation of the brain. Complications in early life, i.e. during pregnancy, labor/delivery, and early neonatal life, have been long thought to increase the risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, also in interaction with genetic factors. However, the cellular processes, physiopathology and etiopathogenesis underlying the susceptibility to psychiatric disorders remain largely unknown, so that defining strategies for early detection and prevention represents a challenge. Recently, the high-throughput biotechnologies revolution has allowed the collection of cheap “big data”. A huge set of biological measurements is now potentially available to each and every individual and for many tissues, including placenta: the sequencing, decoding, and quantification of every human molecule (nucleic acids, proteins, metabolites, DNA methylation, histone acetylation) are now feasible, and promise to move us into the era of precision medicine through the study of this so-called omics. The power of the omics lies in the opportunity to investigate the system-level organization of the living organisms, allowing hypothesis testing on the emergent properties of complex systems with millions of interacting variables. Studying placenta omics has the potential to connect properties of this complex organ with developmental trajectories of risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, therefore informing novel strategies of prevention and early intervention. In this chapter, we discuss the link between early life complication, placenta omics and schizophrenia; although our main focus will be schizophrenia, the implications of our analysis can be extended to other psychiatric disorders.
