Scientists are one step closer to determining the cause of schizophrenia after discovering an abnormal genetic process associated with the disease that begins in the womb. According to experts from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo in New York (USA), this finding could bring us closer to treatments that could prevent schizophrenia before birth.
Although the exact causes of schizophrenia remain unclear, a genetic origin has been established – as it runs in families – and recent studies have even discovered genetic mutations associated with an increased risk.
For their study, the experts sought to learn more about the genomic processes that occur in the womb that could influence the risk of developing schizophrenia. To do this, they collected skin cells from four adults with schizophrenia and four healthy adults. The skin cells were reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, and these differentiated into neural progenitor cells (to assess the processes that occur during early brain development in people with schizophrenia).
By transforming the skin cells of schizophrenia patients into neuronal progenitor cells, the researchers identified an abnormal genetic pathway called nuclear FGFR1 (nFGFR1) that impairs early brain development.
According to the authors, these findings provide proof of concept that schizophrenia may be caused by a dysregulated genomic pathway that influences the brain before birth.
“In the last 10 years, genetic research in schizophrenia has been plagued by an increasing number of mutations found in patients with the disease,” explains Michal K. Stachowiak, leader of the work.
This discovery opens the door to new treatments for schizophrenia, since, for example, a drug could be administered to pregnant women whose offspring were at high risk of developing schizophrenia.
The study has been published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.
