IMPAIRMENT INSIDE CELLS MAY
BE LINKED TO SCHIZOPHRENIA
January 26, 2004
A type of communication that goes on inside cells may be
linked to schizophrenia, according to researchers at Columbia University
Medical Center and Rockefeller University. Although scientists do not know
what causes schizophrenia, they have known for many years that many different
genes and environmental factors play a role, but it's only been during the
past two years that some of these genes have been convincingly linked to the
disease.
The new study suggests that malfunction and lack of
communication between two key regulatory proteins inside the cells of people
with schizophrenia are also involved. This results in impairment of a pathway
that plays an important role in cell survival and synaptic plasticity of the
central nervous system. The study was published today on the Nature
Genetics web site.
“The challenge now for schizophrenia researchers is to
understand how genes that increase the risk for schizophrenia interact with
each other to cause disease,” says one of the study's senior authors, Dr.
Joseph Gogos, assistant professor of physiology and cellular biophysics at
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, “and my lab is actively
working toward this goal.”