Altered expression of the DISC1 gene in peripheral blood of patients with schizophrenia
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Altered expression of the DISC1 gene in peripheral blood of patients with schizophrenia Xiaoqian Fu1, Guofu Zhang2*, Yansong Liu1, Ling Zhang1, Fuquan Zhang3*
and Conghua Zhou4*
Abstract Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, heritable, and refractory psychiatric disorder. Several studies have shown that the disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene is closely associated with schizophrenia by its role in neuronal morphology, synaptic function, brain development, and dopamine homeostasis etc. This study intended to investigate the expression levels of DISC1 gene in schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, and the expression variation of DISC1 gene before and after antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia patients. Methods: In this study, we compared DISC1 expression levels in blood of 48 healthy controls, and 32 schizophrenia patients before and after 12 weeks of antipsychotic treatment using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. Results: The expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients before antipsychotic treatment were higher than those in healthy controls (P < 0.01); whereas after antipsychotic treatment, the expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients still remained increased (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Our study provided further support for the involvement of DISC1 in the development of schizophrenia. Keywords: Schizophrenia, DISC1, Antipsychotics
Background Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a chronic, severe mental disorder, accompanied by positive symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and negative symptoms including decreased motivation, anhedonia, cognitive impairment and social dysfunction [1–3]. The etiology of SCZ remains unclear, with environmental and genetic factors thought to play an important role [4, 5].
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] 2 Wuxi Mental Health Center of Nanjing Medical University, 156 Qianrong Road, Wuxi, China 3 Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China 4 School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Since the disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene was first discovered in a Scottish family with an unusually high incidence of SCZ and other mental disorders [6–8], it has been identified as a candidate risk gene for SCZ in multiple genetic and clinical association studies [6, 9]. DISC1 is a regulator of glutamate function, whose transmission dysfunction is considered to be at the core of mental disorder pathology [10, 11]. Devine et al. proposed that DISC1 controls transport of a wide range of neuronal cargos, including neurotransmitter receptors, mRNAs, vesicles, and mitochondria and regulates neuronal morphology and synaptic function, making it a key factor in the regulati
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