Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a heterogeneous psychiatric disorder marked by impaired thinking, emotions, and behaviors. Studies have suggested a strong connection between SCZ and Alzheimer's disease (AD), however, controversies exist and the underlying mechanisms linking these two disorders remain largely unknown. Therefore, systematic studies of SCZ- and AD-related genes will provide valuable insights into the molecular features of these two diseases and their comorbidities. In this study, we obtained 331 SCZ-related genes, 650 AD-related genes, 65 shared genes between SCZ and AD. Enrichment analysis shown that these 65 shared genes were mainly involved in cognition, neural development, synaptic transmission, drug reactions, metabolic processes and immune related processes, suggesting a complex mechanism for the co-existence of SCZ and AD. In addition, we performed pathway enrichment analysis and found a total of 57 common pathways between SCZ and AD, which could be largely grouped into three modules: immune module, neurodevelopment module and cancer module. We eventually identified the potential disease-related genes whose interactions provide clues to the overlapping symptoms between SCZ and AD.

精神分裂症(SCZ) 是一种异质性精神疾病，以思维、情绪和行为受损为特征。研究表明，SCZ 与阿尔茨海默病(AD) 之间存在密切联系，然而，存在争议，并且将这两种疾病联系起来的潜在机制仍然很大程度上未知。因此，对 SCZ 和 AD 相关基因的系统研究将为了解这两种疾病及其合并症的分子特征提供有价值的见解。在本研究中，我们获得了331个SCZ相关基因，650个AD相关基因，65个SCZ和AD共有基因。富集分析显示，这65个共有基因主要涉及认知、神经发育、突触传递、药物反应、代谢过程和免疫相关过程，提示SCZ和AD共存的复杂机制。此外，我们还进行了通路富集分析，发现SCZ和AD之间共有57条共同通路，大致可分为三个模块：免疫模块、神经发育模块和癌症模块。我们最终确定了潜在的疾病相关基因，这些基因的相互作用为 SCZ 和 AD 之间的重叠症状提供了线索。