Normal Role For Schizophrenia Risk Gene Identified
Cell magazine reports on a study by Johns Hopkins University, USA showing that one of the main genes associated with Schizophrenia, DISC1, plays a normal role in the adult human brain.
How the gene that has been pegged as a major risk factor for schizophrenia and other mood disorders that affect millions in the world contributes to these diseases remains unclear. But this reports sheds further light on this subject.
The report states “It turns out that DISC1 makes a protein that serves as a sort of musical conductor for newly made nerve cells in the adult brain, guiding them to their proper locations at the appropriate tempo so they can seamlessly integrate into our complex and intertwined nervous system. If the DISC1 protein doesn’t operate properly, the new nerves go hyper…. This may highlight why DISC1 is associated with multiple psychiatric disorders.”
Penny Harrington
b5 media Genetics and Health correspondent
