Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This is a review of the present state of knowledge in the area of biological markers that may delineate subpopulations of patients with major psychotic illness. Postmortem studies have revealed that schizophrenia is associated with an excess of dopamine (DA) receptors in the limbic system. A more clinically useful adaptation of this approach has been a study of DA D2 receptors in lymphocytes. Studies of monoamine oxidase, dopamine-beta-hydroxylase, and dimethyltryptamine have not fulfilled their early promise nor have the peptides provided useful information as to possible biological markers. Recent studies of the one-carbon cycle enzymes, methionine adenosyltransferase and serine hydroxymethyltransferase, suggest that underactivity of these, particularly the former, may be a reliable clinical marker for a subgroup of schizophrenics. The computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan abnormalities of schizophrenia establish useful indices of abnormal cerebral anatomy such as cortical atrophy with enlarged ventricles, cortical asymmetries, and atrophy of the cerebellar vermis. Positron emission tomography studies with 18F 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) have shown that many schizophrenics have a higher 2DG uptake in the occipital and temporal rather than the frontal cortex, thus reversing the normal patterns. The dexamethasone suppression test is a valuable biological marker for certain depressions. It may also be useful in identifying subgroups of the schizoaffective disorders, with some schizoaffectives showing an abnormal affective-like response and others not. These and other discriminating biological markers are discussed in this report.
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PMID:Biological markers for the schizophrenic and atypical psychoses. 675 69

The concentrations of serine and glycine and the activity of serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) are abnormal in plasma and brains of schizophrenics. To further elucidate the possible role of neuroleptics on the metabolism of serine and glycine and the activity of SHMT, we studied the plasma of controls and schizophrenics on and off medications, the brains of rats treated with haloperidol, and the activity of purified SHMT in the presence or absence of haloperidol and fluphenazine. Plasmas of neuroleptic-treated schizophrenics had nonsignificantly lower concentrations of serine and glycine. Brains of haloperidol-treated rats had significantly lower concentrations of serine and glycine. At therapeutic levels haloperidol and fluphenazine did not inhibit the activity of purified SHMT. The serine-glycine lowering effects of haloperidol and neuroleptics are discussed in the context of a possible neuroprotective potential of neuroleptics in schizophrenia.
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PMID:Neuroleptic effects on serine and glycine metabolism. 790 68