Discovery Hints at Genetic Basis for the Most Challenging Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Study suggests that current medications don’t target the right neural pathways to treat cognitive deficits often associated with the disease
Our understanding of schizophrenia has increased greatly in recent years, as studies of large groups of people have identified a multitude of genetic variants that increase a person’s risk of the disease. But each of those individual risk factors accounts for “only a very minor amount of the overall risk,” said Alex Nord, a professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior in the College of Biological Sciences and the Center for Neuroscience.
Now a team of researchers co-led by Nord and graduate student Tracy Warren has connected genetic variants to the neural pathways that underlie some of the most challenging aspects of schizophrenia.
“This is a new approach,” said Nord. “To have this level of detail is really powerful.” The results were published March 15 in Molecular Psychiatry.
The work could one day lead to better diagnosis and treatment for the most devastating symptoms of schizophrenia – the ones most likely to leave a person homeless or unemployed – but least likely to respond to current medications.
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