Schizophrenia Breakthrough

What causes schizophrenia?

It is a chronic and a severe psychological brain disorder that affects the person's ability to think, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others. It is characterized abnormal social behavior where patients may see or hear things that aren't real. Now, for the first time researchers from Harvard Medical School found possible cause of the illness. They have discovered a gene called complement gene 4 (C4) that triggers schizophrenia and the mechanisms behind it.  Researcher McCarroll performed a experiment to understand the structure of the C4 gene in the DNA samples of individuals who had schizoprenia 29,000 and 36,000 did not. They noticed a significant variation in the structure of the gene that differ among those 2 groups. The results show a correlation between the C4 gene and  schizophrenia.

In order to gain more understanding of the C4 gene researchers used mice to study the pruning of synapses. Synaptic pruning is the gradual process by which eliminates the multiple synapse  connections and weakens during late adolescence or early adulthood. The team found greater C4 gene activity as they experience synpatic pruning. Hence, C4 gene might support the understanding of schizophrenia development and the symptoms provoking the onset. This finding led a major breakthrough for the cause of schizphrenia. This will help doctors and health professionals  develop better preventative therapies and treatment for the disorder.

Personally, I am glad I've come across this article because schizophrenia has always been a challenge to understand and the prognosis of it. About 21 million across the globe have this disorder because of the early onset. Due to this research, scientists can answer more questions to understand and determine the underlying issues related to schizophrenia

Here's Why People Get Schizophrenia, Scientists Say

In a recent study conducted, scientist focused on understanding the origin of schizophrenia and trying to understand whether it was gene or illness related. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder that causes individuals to hear voices or see things that aren’t there, or develop irrational delusions; they may display disorganized thinking, agitated body movements or emotional withdrawal. Everyone undergoes a brain process of what is called “synaptic pruning”. Synaptic pruning refers to the process of neurological regulation. During this process there is a change in the neural structure by eliminating the number of neurons or connections to increase the efficiency of function. A gene involved in synaptic pruning may be the cause of increasing a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia. The gene involved is the C4 gene. The C4 gene normally acts as a regulatory gene of the immune system. Analysis of 65,00 people who had a particular form of the C4 gene demonstrated a higher expression of that gene and a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. Synaptic pruning is active during adolescence, which is usually when Schizophrenia symptoms begin to occur. If the C4 gene undergoes mutation during synaptic pruning it causes thing to go wrong. What begins to occur is the removal of too many synapses. This results in brain wiring, which does not allow the brain to undergo basic functions that it used to be able to perform.

In my opinion, this article demonstrates decent background information on how the C4 gene is connected in the development of schizophrenia and its effect on people at risk of having it. It looks at schizophrenia from the perspective of brain process and reflects back on the persons adolescent years which is reasonable. Overall I think this article presented new information on a topic that is always in need of answers and studying. 

Original Article

'Schizophrenia Gene' Discovery Sheds Light on Possible Cause!

Schizophrenia is a sever mental illness that affects a person's daily lifestyle. There are many different forms of schizophrenia and there are different categories that it can fall into. There are positive, negative, and cognitive categories. Each having it's own severeness in a way a person can handle every day life.

Researchers have recently conducted studies in both humans and mice and has called the new schizophrenia gene C4. They have said that it appears to be involved in breaking down neurons, which is called synaptic pruning. The researchers realized that it might be possible that inappropriate pruning of neural connections could lead to the development of schizophrenia. They found that this could be the reason why teens are often first to develop symptoms of schizophrenia.

Further research is needed for the scientists to make sure that their findings are correct, but if the theory holds true, then this would be one of the first times that researches have linked schizophrenia to certain genes.

Beth Stevens, a neuroscientist who worked on the new study, said  "We're far from having a treatment based on this, but it's exciting to think that one day, we might be able to turn down the pruning process in some individuals and decrease their risk"

C4 Tampers with Schizophrenia

           A breakthrough with schizophrenia research provides a theory as to how this gene causes a mental illness. Through studies with humans and mice, a new schizophrenia risk gene called “C4” tampers with relations between neurons. This junction between two nerve cells is known as “synaptic pruning” and normally occurs during teenage development. With extreme pruning taking place, the development of schizophrenia is at high risk. Because this is the first link between genes and schizophrenia, researchers are far from results, but remain confident in their findings.







             Although researchers knew DNA’s 6th chromosome was the main center for risk of schizophrenia, they began focusing on the region known as C4 which is involved with the immune system. Using brain samples from recent autopsy’s, variation of copies and length of C4 allowed researchers to predict how active this gene was in an individual. After observing about sixty five thousand people from twenty two countries (half with schizophrenia, half without) the genome database showed higher levels of C4 activity related to people with a greater risk of schizophrenia. After testing humans, they turned to mice where they also found more nerve cell pruning associated with higher C4 activity during brain development.

           Old research has shown that fewer connections between nerves cells occurred in those with schizophrenia while those without showed just the opposite. This new evidence has delivered a new view on schizophrenia research. Unfortunately, studies are preliminary and only look for pruning evidence. The direct processes occurring are not being studied due to lack of information on brain activity. On the contrary, antipsychotic drugs are used in immune system treatments, therefore there is hope that the same drugs will help slow down pruning and offer a treatment for this disease.

           Although researchers have come close to a finding a solution to this disease, I believe there is still unanswered questions that influence schizophrenia. Since researchers provided information that studies are focused mainly on pruning evidence and not on brain activity, therefore other possible factors could be acting on this gene. The brain is an intricate and complex network of neurons and issues that all act on one another to function smoothly. It only takes one part of the operation for a function to fail. I do agree that C4 could possibly be a part of the failing operation that leads to schizophrenia, but there could be other factors that are influencing this particular gene to tamper with synaptic pruning. I hope that one day they can find a medication to cure this disease, unfortunately I do not think medication will be produced anytime soon due to the lack of information on brain activity.

Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia's Cause

Recently, scientists took a significant step toward finding the cause of schizophrenia, in a study that provides the first rigorously tested insight into the genetics behind any common psychiatric disorder. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by hallucinations and delusional thinking. Although people who suffer from schizophrenia are prescribed drugs, they only hide some symptoms and do not nearly touch upon the underlying cause. 

The recent findings were published in the journal Nature, which explained that although these findings were a step in the right direction, scientists and researchers are not even close to finding the exact cause, and unfortunately, will not lead to any new treatments. But, this new finding will help scientists and researchers move forward in finding the root cause to this ancient disorder, and does explain some mysteries such as why this disorder usually begins in adolescence. 

Researchers put pieces together by which genetics can increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, and found it was linked to synaptic pruning. Synaptic pruning is a process that happens in the brain which sheds weak or redundant connections between neurons as it matures. This happens in the prefrontal cortex, where thinking and planning happens, and starts during adolescence through early adulthood. Researchers suggest that people who carry genes that accelerate synaptic pruning are at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. They suspect that synaptic pruning goes awry in people with schizophrenia because studies show they have a diminished number of neural connections in prefrontal areas, as compared to people without schizophrenia. 

The research team was made up by scientists from Harvard Medical School, Boston's Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute, a research center allied with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team began by focusing on the human genome MHC which was strongly associated with schizophrenia in previous studies. 

The below "skyline" graphs show the genetic variation associated with schizophrenia from 2011 to 2014, while the MHC looms the highest.

The MHC genome is known to control the body's immune responses, which had given rise to the question if schizophrenia is an autoimmune condition. Using advanced statistical methods, the research team found that the MHC locus contained four common variants of a gene called C4 which produced two kinds of proteins, C4-A and C4-B. The team analyzed 64,000 people and came to the conclusion that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have the overactive form of C4-A than the control subjects. C4-A leads to innapropriate pruning in the critical phase of development. Researchers hope to soon determine an at-risk genetic profile for schizophrenia that will help clarify a prognosis for patients. 

The finding of the C4-A gene leading to innapropriate pruning is an enormous step in the process of finding the cause of schizophrenia, and the researchers are excited about this finding. Although they have a long way to go, it gives them more insight into what can be causing this early psychiatric disorder. 

I believe this finding will give researchers motivation to find out more, because this finding has answered many questions and mysteries. We now know what gene is responsible for how fast synaptic pruning happens, but still are not sure why or how this actually happens. This finding also gives researchers ideas on new medications; possibly medications that can interfere with the pruning process. These findings also reveals why schizophrenia shows itself in young people, because that is when synaptic pruning happens, which is very promising. I am surprised, though, that this article does not talk about non-genetic events and if they can have an effect on schizophrenia. Are researchers leaning more towards schizophrenia as a true genetic disorder? Can traumatic events cause schizophrenia? Or maybe worsen effects after a person already has it? There are still many unanswered questions. Although this study did not reveal the cause of schizophrenia, we are well on our way, and technology will only keep advancing to help us through this process.