Researchers identify genetic features of cells underlying schizophrenia

Schizophrenia affects approximately 24 million people, or 1 in 300 people, worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Science Daily reports.

Schizophrenia is a complex disease with variable presentations, and the diverse nature of this mental health disorder has made understanding the mechanisms that cause the disease, and subsequently developing effective treatments, especially challenging.

In a new study, published Thursday in Science, a team led by McLean Hospital researchers used comprehensive genetic and cellular analyses to shed new light on the intricate molecular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. Their new work provides a map for how the genes known to increase risk of schizophrenia affect specific cells within the brain.

For the new study, a multi-center team of researchers conducted a comprehensive single-cell analysis of transcriptomic changes in human prefrontal cortex, examining postmortem brain tissue from 140 individuals across two independent cohorts. Their analyses included more than 468,000 cells.

They uncovered unprecedented insights into the cellular basis of schizophrenia, linking genetic risk factors to specific neuronal populations.

The new study suggests potential links between schizophrenia pathology and processes such as neurodevelopment, synaptic signaling, and transcriptional regulation, implicating key transcriptional regulators associated with both schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders.

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