Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects the way a person thinks, feels and behaves. Symptoms can make it difficult to participate in normal daily activities.
Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have found that some people with schizophrenia have autoantibodies — which are created by the immune system and recognize the body’s own proteins, rather than external threats such as viruses or bacteria — against a protein important for communication between brain cells called NCAM1.
The patients’ autoantibodies also induced schizophrenia-related behaviors in mice. This finding may improve the diagnosis and treatment of a subset of schizophrenic patients.
Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects the way people act and think, as well as their perceptions of reality. It is often difficult to treat because there are many different causes and symptoms, according to SciTechDaily.
In a new study published In the journal Cell Reports Medicine, TMDU researchers identify an antibody protein — a protein the immune system produces to bind to a specific substance in an individual’s body, rather than a foreign substance. Like a virus or bacteria In some patients with schizophrenia.
They also found that this autoantibody, when injected into mice, causes schizophrenia-like behaviors and changes in the brain.
When considering autoantibodies that could cause schizophrenia, the scientists had a specific protein in mind. Previous research suggested that neuronal cell adhesion molecule (NCAM1) may play an important role in the development of schizophrenia.
NCAM1 helps Brain cells talk to each other Through specialized connections known as synapses.
“We decided to look for autoantibodies against NCAM1 in about 200 healthy people and 200 people with schizophrenia,” explains Hiroki Shiwako, lead author of the study.
“We only found these autoantibodies in 12 patients, which suggests that they may be associated with disease in only a small subset of schizophrenia cases,” the researcher confirms.
The research team did not stop there and tried to better understand whether these autoantibodies could cause any changes that normally occur in schizophrenia, so Purified antibodies Some patients injected it into the brains of rats.
“The results have been fantastic,” Hidehiko Takahashi, who is also the study’s author, revealed. “Although mice only had these autoantibodies in the brain for a short period of time, changes occurred in their behavior and synapses similar to what you see in humans with schizophrenia.”
Specifically, mice with patients’ autoantibodies had cognitive impairments and changes in Regulating the frightening reflexboth of which appear in other animal models of schizophrenia.
They had fewer synapses and dendritic spines, which are important structures for communication between brain cells, which are also affected in schizophrenia.
Because schizophrenia affects people in very different ways and is often treatment-resistant, the results of this study are promising.
If schizophrenia is indeed caused by antibodies against NCAM1 in some patients, this would be of significance Improvements in diagnosis and treatment.
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