Researchers from the Institute for Brain Development. Libera (LIBD) believe that they have solved the riddle that
Schizophrenia: a dispute that is over 70 years old
Schizophrenia is considered one of the most severe mental disorders. It is characterized by severe disturbances in perception, thinking and emotion.
According to the National Institute of Mentalhealth, schizophrenia is one of the 15 leading causes of disability worldwide, with psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders, as well as decreased expression of emotions, decreased motivation to achieve goals, difficulties in social relationships, motor impairment and cognitive impairment.
Symptoms usually begin in late adolescenceor early adulthood, although cognitive impairment and unusual behavior sometimes appear in childhood. Current treatments for schizophrenia include antipsychotic drugs, which target the symptoms of psychosis but not the cause.
Much is still unknown about this disease.The lack of breakthrough scientific discoveries that could shed light on the etiology and pathogenesis of mental disorders encourage scientists to investigate the issue again and again.
What is the problem?
Scientists have known for several decades thatIrregular dopamine levels have some association with psychosis and are a critical factor in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Drugs that increase dopamine levels in the brain, such as amphetamines, are known to cause psychosis. Medicines that treat psychosis do so by reducing dopamine activity.
As a result, one of the main side effectsdrugs - lack of pleasure and joy. Theoretically, if scientists could target dopamine receptors with drugs, the new treatment "wouldn't take away the patient's joy as much," explains Dr. Jennifer Erwin, an Institute researcher and one of the report's authors.
All this inspired generations of scientists to tryto understand whether—and how—dopamine imbalance is linked to schizophrenia. Dopamine transmits information to the brain by interacting with proteins on the surface of brain cells called dopamine receptors. Now, having studied them, the staff of the Lieber Institute have confirmed that dopamine is a causative factor in schizophrenia.
How does dopamine "work"?
Dopamine affects many body functions,including memory, movement, motivation, mood and concentration. Typically, activities that offer rewards increase levels of this hormone in the brain. Many addictive drugs work by increasing dopamine levels.
Dopamine is also a neurotransmitter thatacts as a chemical messenger, sending signals between neurons (nerve cells in the brain) to influence their activity and behavior. Dopamine is also a reward neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure.
What have the scientists done?
Researchers studied hundreds of post-mortem samplesbrains donated to the Lieber Institute by more than 350 people. Some of them suffered from schizophrenia, while others had no mental illness. Biologists have focused on the caudate nucleus, a part of the brain that is critical for learning how to make complex ideas and behavior more automatic and intuitive. It is also important because it has the richest supply of dopamine in the brain.
Biologists also studied the region of the human genomewhich, according to large international genetic studies, is associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia. This region contains protein receptor genes that respond to dopamine, suggesting a link between it and schizophrenia.
Although genetic evidence suggests a roledopamine receptors in the risk of developing schizophrenia, scientists still have questions. Therefore, researchers from the Lieber Institute went further to study the mechanisms that make dopamine receptors a risk factor for the development of schizophrenia.
What did they find out?
It turned out that the mechanism exists specifically inA subtype of dopamine receptors called autoreceptors, which regulate how much dopamine is released from the presynaptic neuron. If the autoreceptors are impaired, the flow of dopamine in the brain is poorly controlled.
Autoreceptors are a type of receptor locatedin the membranes of nerve cells, and part of the negative feedback loop of signaling in the brain. It is sensitive only to neurotransmitters or hormones released by the neuron on which the autoreceptor is located.
Researchers have shown that reduced expressionThis autoreceptor in the brain explains the genetic signs of disease risk. This is consistent with the prevailing hypothesis that too much dopamine plays a role in the development of psychosis and explains the link between dopamine and schizophrenia. The mystery is finally solved.
What's the bottom line?
Pioneering neuroscientist Dr. Saul Snyder called itresearch was a breakthrough that was preceded by many decades. “There is a lot of confusing data indicating the importance of dopamine and dopamine receptors in schizophrenia,” said a scientist who was not involved in the research project. “The key thing the researchers have done is to collect data that strongly suggests that dopamine systems go haywire in schizophrenia and that this is the cause of the disease.”
“For decades, scientists have debated the connectiondopamine with schizophrenia,” the neurologist concludes. “They used to say, “Well, it’s interesting to speculate about this, but there’s no hard evidence.” But now that we have much more accurate data, we keep coming back to the same theory. Yes, there is no need to call it a hypothesis anymore.”
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