Schizophrenia is a chronic debilitating disorder which affects more than two million Americans, and millions more worldwide. While significant progress has been made in understanding the disease and developing treatments, there remains a significant unmet medical need. More than 50% of patients switch their medication in a given year due to either poor response or the experience of adverse events.
Researchers have opened a new avenue for investigations of neurological development, disease, and therapies that cannot be undertaken in living people by employing stem cells to grow small brain-like structures in the lab.
A research group from MedUni Vienna’s Center for Brain Research has identified key cells that control data communication between parts of the brain.
For the first time, researchers have deciphered the atomic structure of a protein that transports one of the body’s most vital neurotransmitters into neurons.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University, led by Prof. Illana Gozes from the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, have unraveled a mechanism shared by mutations in the genes ADNP and SHANK3, which cause autism, schizophrenia, and other conditions.
Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are promising tools for forecasting disease risk, but current versions have bias built-in, which can reduce their accuracy in some populations and lead to health disparities.
According to the World Health Organization, schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric condition that begins in late adolescence or early adulthood and affects one in every 300 persons globally.
In a study published May 02, 2022 in Nature Communications, scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used human brain organoids to reveal how a genetic mutation associated with a profound form of autism disrupts neural development.
Abnormalities in a type of brain cell called astrocytes may play a pivotal role in causing some behavioral symptoms of autism spectrum disorders, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
The brain has the potential to change the way neurons communicate with one another. That is how it prevents out-of-control brain activity. Scientists have discovered a mechanism that plays a key role in this.
The cerebral ventricles—four linked cavities of the brain that are packed with cerebrospinal fluid—become enlarged in hydrocephalus, or “water on the brain;” however, the cause is unknown in many instances.
In a work of systematic biology that advances the field, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have identified 16 distinct cell populations in a complex area of the midbrain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA.
A substantial number of individual genes that potentially play essential roles in schizophrenia have been uncovered in the largest-ever genomic analysis of the psychiatric condition.
What is the role of genetics in schizophrenia? To address this question, an international group of researchers led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Cardiff University developed and conducted the largest-ever genetic study on schizophrenia.
Researchers from a USC-led consortium have discovered 15 "hotspots" in the genome that either speed up brain aging or slow it down -; a finding that could provide new drug targets to resist Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain disorders, as well as developmental delays.
Biological functions rely on accurate cellular communication involving different molecules. Most major signaling pathways involved in such communication, called signal transduction, often involve a family of kinases—enzymes catalyzing the transfer of phosphates between specific substrate molecules.
New research may help scientists locate immature cells in the central nervous system that could shed light on the causes of neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis-;and autoimmune disease that affects the brain and nervous system-;and allow for the development of better therapeutic treatments.
Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are known for eating up unwanted items like germs and debris, much as their counterparts do in the rest of the body.
In a comprehensive study involving one of the largest-ever samples of post-mortem brains, scientists at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, in collaboration with researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, have pinpointed significant differences in gene expression in two specific regions of the brains of hundreds of patients who had bipolar disorder.
Three members of a family of proteins have been identified that are important to helping us fine tune the activity of brain chemicals which enable us to walk or stand at will, scientists report.
In a breakthrough that holds significant promise for early diagnosis and better treatment of psychiatric illness, researchers have for the first time used neurons derived from human stem cells to predict the cardinal features of a psychiatric illness, such as psychosis and cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia.