'Biggest ever' study of its kind may advance the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of SchizophreniaAugust 12, 2004Scientists at the Babraham Institute have made significant advances in understanding schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental illness which has been estimated to affect over 1% of the population and costs the NHS over £2.5 billion per year. Babraham scientists have pinpointed a breakdown in mitochondria - the power stations of the cell - as a key factor. The discovery, described in an article published in Molecular Psychiatry, was made by a team of scientists working in Dr Sabine Bahn's research group at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. The large-scale, multi-disciplinary approach has identified differences in the expression of genes related to energy production between schizophrenia patients and unaffected people. The team studied tissue from over 100 brains and screened over 22,000 genes. Dr Bahn comments: "This study is the most extensive study of its kind so far, and we believe its multi-tier, complementary approach has provided surprising and convincing data. We hope that our findings will lead to advances in treatment, diagnosis and hopefully prevention of schizophrenia and related illnesses." Babraham Institute, The |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Schizophrenia Current Events and Schizophrenia News Articles Schizophrenia gene's role may be broader, more potent, than thought UCSF scientists studying nerve cells in fruit flies have uncovered a new function for a gene whose human equivalent may play a critical role in schizophrenia. Full recovery now possible for an 'untreatable' mental illness Patients coping with the chaos and misery of Borderline Personality Disorder now have reason for strong confidence in making major life changes through a new treatment, Schema Therapy. Immune system activated in schizophrenia Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have discovered that patients with recent-onset schizophrenia have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their brains. Their findings offer hope of being able to treat schizophrenia with drugs that affect the immune system. Why can't chimps speak? If humans are genetically related to chimps, why did our brains develop the innate ability for language and speech while theirs did not? Developmental delay could stem from nicotinic receptor deletion The loss of a gene through deletion of genetic material on chromosome 15 is associated with significant abnormalities in learning and behavior, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in a report that appears online today in the journal Nature Genetics. Fighting Sleep, Penn Researchers Reverse the Cognitive Impairment Caused By Sleep Deprivation A research collaboration led by biologists and neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania has found a molecular pathway in the brain that is the cause of cognitive impairment due to sleep deprivation. Testicular tumors may explain why some diseases are more common in children of older fathers A rare form of testicular tumour has provided scientists with new insights into how genetic changes (mutations) arise in our children. CSHL-led team discovers rare mutation dramatically increasing schizophrenia risk An international team of researchers led by geneticist Jonathan Sebat, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), has identified a mutation on human chromosome 16 that substantially increases risk for schizophrenia. Faulty 'wiring' in the brain triggers onset of schizophrenia A new study by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King's College London has discovered abnormalities in the white matter of the brain that seem to be critical for the timing of schizophrenia. General anesthetics lead to learning disabilities in animal models Studies by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have shown that blocking the NMDA receptor in immature rats leads to profound, rapid brain injury and disruption of auditory function as the animals mature. More Schizophrenia Current Events and Schizophrenia News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||