Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects more than 20 million people in the world. Eugene Daniels discusses the possible root causes of Schizophrenia in the video from Newsy. As he mentions in the video, people who suffer from Schizophrenia have fewer neural connections than people without the disease. Also, scientists have found that the immune system plays a major role in the development of Schizophrenia. However, in order to effectively treat this psychiatric disorder scientists need to discover the underlying factors that cause this disorder.
Researchers from Columbia State University and New York State Psychiatric Institute used a chemical compound to fuse and grow new neural connections within the main regions of the brain so that memory loss can be restored. Since memory deficit is a main defining factor in Schizophrenia, their main focus was to discover how it develops on a biological and neurological level. The study involved testing mice with the genetic mutation called 22q11.2 microdeletion which is associated with memory loss. In previous studies, they have found that these microdeletions of 22q11.2 are linked to fewer neural connections in certain areas of the brain which in turn leads to memory deficits. People who express this genetic mutation of 22q11.2 microdeletions have a one in three chance of developing Schizophrenia. Whereas, people who do not express this genetic mutation have a one in 100 chance of developing Schizophrenia. The findings from the study demonstrated that through the restoration of neural connections the effects of memory loss in people with Schizophrenia can be reversed. According to Dr. Gordon (2016), in the mouse models the long neural connections were stunted within the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus which are the regions of the brain associated with memory. This lead researchers to conduct a new study which addressed the issue that the 22q11.2 microdeletion causes the protein Gsk3β to be overactive resulting in stunted growth of the neurons in the areas of the brain responsible for memory. They found that by suppressing the Gsk3β protein the neurons were able to branch out and form strong connections with each other which helps strengthen memory. Through these findings, scientist reveal the potential of the Gsk3β protein in helping to alleviate the symptoms of Schizophrenia.
Through this scientific discovery, scientists and doctors can use this valuable information to develop more effective treatments for Schizophrenia. Even though Schizophrenia is a complicated disorder and doesn't have a single cause, I think that this discovery can contribute greatly to the scientific research on this disorder and relieve the symptoms from people who are suffering from it.
Interesting that Schizophrenia is attributed genetic mutations which result from micro deletions. I thought schizophrenia was just a psychological disorder that was caused by outside factors, but the genetic aspect makes it easier to understand. Perhaps other mental disorders are caused by mutations in the genome? In the future scientists may have the ability to fix these mutations and therefor fix this and any other genetic based psychological disorder.
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