Question: Could you go into more depth with regard to how Schizophrenia is affected by genetics and protein activity? Does this relate to other diseases such as Parkinson's which have been linked to neurotransmitter defects?

Nick Bradshaw answered on 18 Mar 2010:

Ok, complex question. The short answer is we don’t know. The longer answer is that we are trying to find out!

Lots of research has been done on families with schizophrenia and it appears that our genes account for about 40% of our “risk” of getting schizophrenia, with the rest coming from environmental factors. There have been lots of experiments to try and identify which genes are responsible for this, and we have found a lot of them. However most of these only slightly alter our risk of schziophrenia, or only cause schziophrenia in a relativly small group of people.

The lab I work in are studying one particular gene (named DISC1 – short for Disrupted in Schiophrenia 1) which appears to be one of the more consistant causes of schizophrenia worldwide. The DISC1 gene tells the body how to produce a protein (also called DISC1) which appears to bind to several other “schizophrenia-proteins” in nerve cells.

These genes are invovled in several interesting potentially interesting processes. They are present at synapses, so it is possible that they affect neurotransmitters. They also play a role in causing newly born nerves to migrate to the correct part of the brain, so it is possible that if they go wrong they may “mis-wire” the brain in some way.

Certainly neurotransmitter defects are seen in many schizophrenia patients but it doesnt seem to be a specific neurotransmitter or in a specifc area of the brain like in Parkinsons. Basically it looks like it is a lot more complicate disease.

I hope that helps! If you have any more questions please feel free to ask.