HomeLifestyleHealth & FitnessNew insight into Schizophrenia offers hope for new drug treatments

New insight into Schizophrenia offers hope for new drug treatments

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Schizophrenia is one of the most well-known mental illnesses, affecting over 20 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and manifesting itself in a variety of ways, including hallucinations, memory loss, paranoia, and more. Experts have never fully grasped how it forms.

However, a new study may have changed that, revealing where it most likely originates in the brain.

The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Communications, pinpointed these areas by focusing on a specific protein linked to schizophrenia. It reveals where mental illness originates in the brain based on its location, which could lead to a better understanding of the psychiatric disorder and improved treatment in the future.

What is schizophrenia and how does it manifest itself in the body? What are the signs and symptoms?

Schizophrenia is a mental illness and a psychiatric ailment that can manifest itself in a variety of ways.

It is primarily defined by psychotic episodes in which a person loses contact with reality in various ways. Other sensory distortions can occur as a result of the disease, including hallucinations, hearing voices that aren’t there, and other sensory distortions. It can also produce delusions, such as extreme and unreasonable paranoia or other ideas that are not backed up by evidence, as well as disordered speaking and thinking.

The brain’s impacts can also cause memory and information processing problems, as well as difficulty making judgments and paying attention. It can also cause extreme social withdrawal and dysfunction, as well as a decreased ability to feel pleasure and a flat impact, which is described as the lack of facial expressions or voice tone to convey emotions.

How you can get schizophrenia?

Experts have deduced a number of facts about this, which have been documented by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

For one example, while symptoms of schizophrenia can appear at any age, schizophrenia commonly manifests in adolescence.

Environmental factors such as stressful environments, infections, dietary difficulties prior to birth, and poverty have all been suggested to play a role.

What we do know is that the illness appears to be hereditary and genetic to some extent. Being in the same family as someone with schizophrenia, however, does not guarantee that you will develop the illness. The exact mechanism of this genetic process is unknown, and it is now unable to examine it using genetic data.

So where does it come from in the brain?

This is where the new research comes into play.

The synapse-associated protein 97, also known as SAP97, was studied by researchers at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences.

This protein is a bit of an enigma; scientists are aware of its existence but have no idea what it does or where it does it. In reality, previous investigations on SAP97 have yielded contradictory results.

SAP97 appears to play a role in schizophrenia, according to a number of various studies conducted over the years. More precisely, there’s a link between schizophrenia and SAP97’s inability to function properly and accomplish what it’s meant to do.

This particular link has been highlighted in a variety of ways. DLG1, a gene encoded by SAP97, was identified as a putative hub of schizophrenia-related activity in one investigation. SAP97 mutations have also been found in schizophrenia patients, and mutations that result in the loss of a DLG1 allele have been linked to a 40-fold increased risk of developing schizophrenia. 

Why does this happen?

That was never conclusively established by scientists. While it was apparent that SAP97 and its gene DLG1 were involved in schizophrenia when they were unable to operate properly, the fact that no one knew what SAP97 did in the first place has made it excruciatingly impossible to understand this process at all.

Even more perplexing is the fact that SAP97 is known to be a Membrane-Associated Guanylate Kinase (MAGUK) protein at the very least. This means it should influence the development and storage of memories by altering glutamatergic transmission between neurons in the brain. However, it has never been proved to be capable of doing so.

The study

So, where is SAP97 if it isn’t present where it should be?

The new study’s researchers decided to explore elsewhere to find out.

SAP97 was not found in any of the areas of the brain where it is normally found. With that in mind, the researchers turned their attention to a location that was, in principle, associated with schizophrenia.

The dentate gyrus is a component of the hippocampus that regulates contextual episodic memory, or the conscious remembrance of life experiences. Basically, this is where you’d keep track of what happened when it happened, and where it happened.

As previously stated, this sort of memory is frequently warped and altered in schizophrenia, suggesting that the dentate gyrus, which governs this type of recall, may be altered in someone with schizophrenia.

If SAP97 is linked to this, it’s possible that the unknown protein will be discovered there as well.

As a result, the scientists got back to work. They searched for alterations in the dentate gyrus of rats whose SAP97 had been disrupted.

And they discovered them.

When SAP97 activity was impaired, glutamatergic signaling spikes were observed in neurons in the dentate gyrus. This type of spike causes substantial changes in contextual episodic memory, which is a hallmark feature of schizophrenia.

Due to the fact that SAP97 was suppressed, the assumption is that the unknown protein is involved in the regulation of glutamatergic signaling in the dentate gyrus.

This is a significant step forward in determining the function and location of this protein in the brain, as well as showing where schizophrenia symptoms may appear.

The researchers plan to build on this work by conducting more study to see if SAP97 is active in other parts of the brain, as well as to see if additional mutations linked to schizophrenia induce comparable glutamatergic signaling increases in the dentate gyrus.

As a result, learning more about this issue may lead to more effective treatment options.

Antipsychotic medicine, in combination with therapy and social support, is currently the most prevalent treatment for schizophrenia. However, these medications can cause dozens of new side effects that can be extremely disruptive to daily life, prompting many patients to discontinue use. However, this is exceedingly risky and may exacerbate symptoms. Additionally, drugs do not always work for everyone or alleviate all symptoms completely. Some people may need to take extra medications, such as clozapine, which can have substantial adverse effects and necessitates frequent blood tests, which can be problematic.

Millions of people with schizophrenia around the world could benefit from more effective therapy.

Source:10.1038/s41467-022-28430-5

Image Credit: Getty

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