AIIMS Patna researchers identify complex genetic etiology of Schizophrenia

A team of neuroscience researchers from AIIMS Patna, National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India, Langone medical centre, New York, USA, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA, and Aix Marseille University, Inserm, France has come forward with a gene-based explanation for the causation of Schizophrenia.

Patna: Schizophrenia is a yet unsolved psychiatric disorder involving about 1% of the world population. It is a complex and variable disorder characterized by cognitive, social, and affective impairment, and by the presence of psychotic symptoms. Common features include delusions, auditory hallucinations, disordered thinking, unusual speech or behavior, and social withdrawal.

A team of neuroscience researchers from AIIMS, Patna, National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India, Langone medical centre, New York, USA, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA, and Aix Marseille University, Inserm, France has come forward with a gene-based explanation for the causation of Schizophrenia.

These researchers work under an umbrella body of international researchers ‘Etiologically Elusive Disorders Research Network (EEDRN)’ devoted to investigating yet unsolved human diseases. Their research findings have been published in a peer-reviewed journal of international repute ‘Frontiers in Psychiatry.’

“An advanced bioinformatics analysis of the gene expression data generated from the key brain regions of the post-mortem patients identified a genetic signature involved in the pathogenesis of Schizophrenia which indicated a compromise of the basic neuronal cell functions in this disease,” said Dr. Ashutosh Kumar, Assistant Professor in AIIMS, Patna, and lead author in the study.

“Our findings are in coherence with the regional brain dysfunction evidenced in the various neuroimaging studies in Schizophrenia,” said Vikas Pareek, a neuroscience scholar working in Neuroimaging and Computational Neuroscience Department, National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India, and a co-author in this study.

"Our studied brain regions prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum are known as the prime regulators of the cognitive integrity in human, and often have been reported involved in Schizophrenia, but the molecular mechanisms of the disease pathogenesis are yet little known. Our research will help the researcher to focus on the genetic markers related to basic neuronal cell functions, and think for a genetic, pharmacological or environmental enrichment based modulation of the marker genes as a therapeutic approach” said Dr. Ravi Kant Narayan, a co-author in the study from AIIMS, Patna.