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)

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), as the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, plays an essential role for the overall balance between neuronal excitation and inhibition by acting on GABAA receptors, which are ligand-gated chloride channels. Impaired GABAergic function contributes to certain forms of epilepsy, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease, and other neurological disorders. In order to identify possible genetic features and to further study biological regulation of GABAA receptor genes whose promoter elements and sequence anomalies may contribute to epileptic disorders, as an initial step, we shot-gun sequenced a BAC clone, dj082c10 (195,909-bp in size), encompassing human gamma(2) subunit of GABAA receptor (GABRG2). It is, we believe, the first genomic sequence of the GABA receptor gamma subunit family. Four contigs were assembled from 2950 reads prior to gap in an average redundancy of eight folds over the entire region. The precision of the consensus sequence was predicted to be 99.999% after closing gaps and finishing weak regions. The nine exons of GABRG2 spans an 85-kb region that had 81 SINEs comprising 22.32%, and nine L1 elements comprising 3.40%, respectively. However, the density of L1 in the regions flanking GABRG2 gene (29.45% by 45 elements) is significantly higher than that within the gene. The length of GABRG2 introns varies in the range of 1.5 kb to 38.1 kb.
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PMID:Complete genomic sequence of 195 Kb of human DNA containing the gene GABRG2. 1132 46

Non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonists, such as phencyclidine, ketamine and MK801, produce psychosis in humans. These drugs also produce injury to cingulate-retrosplenial cortex in adult rodents that can be prevented by GABA-receptor agonists and antipsychotics such as haloperidol and clozapine. MK801 injections into anterior thalamus reproduce limbic cortex injury, and GABA-receptor agonist injections into anterior thalamus prevent injury produced by systemic MK801. Inhibition of NMDA receptors on GABAergic thalamic reticular nucleus neurons might activate thalamocortical 'injury' circuits in animals. Pathological activation of thalamocortical circuits might also mediate the psychosis produced by NMDA-receptor antagonists in humans, and might contribute to psychosis in schizophrenia.
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PMID:Psychosis: pathological activation of limbic thalamocortical circuits by psychomimetics and schizophrenia? 1135 4

Brain tissue has a remarkable ability to accumulate glutamate. This ability is due to glutamate transporter proteins present in the plasma membranes of both glial cells and neurons. The transporter proteins represent the only (significant) mechanism for removal of glutamate from the extracellular fluid and their importance for the long-term maintenance of low and non-toxic concentrations of glutamate is now well documented. In addition to this simple, but essential glutamate removal role, the glutamate transporters appear to have more sophisticated functions in the modulation of neurotransmission. They may modify the time course of synaptic events, the extent and pattern of activation and desensitization of receptors outside the synaptic cleft and at neighboring synapses (intersynaptic cross-talk). Further, the glutamate transporters provide glutamate for synthesis of e.g. GABA, glutathione and protein, and for energy production. They also play roles in peripheral organs and tissues (e.g. bone, heart, intestine, kidneys, pancreas and placenta). Glutamate uptake appears to be modulated on virtually all possible levels, i.e. DNA transcription, mRNA splicing and degradation, protein synthesis and targeting, and actual amino acid transport activity and associated ion channel activities. A variety of soluble compounds (e.g. glutamate, cytokines and growth factors) influence glutamate transporter expression and activities. Neither the normal functioning of glutamatergic synapses nor the pathogenesis of major neurological diseases (e.g. cerebral ischemia, hypoglycemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy and schizophrenia) as well as non-neurological diseases (e.g. osteoporosis) can be properly understood unless more is learned about these transporter proteins. Like glutamate itself, glutamate transporters are somehow involved in almost all aspects of normal and abnormal brain activity.
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PMID:Glutamate uptake. 1136 36

A core component to corticolimbic circuitry is the GABAergic interneuron. Neuroanatomic studies conducted over the past century have demonstrated several subtypes of interneuron defined by characteristic morphological appearances in Golgi-stained preparations. More recently, both cytochemical and electrophysiological techniques have defined various subtypes of GABA neuron according to synaptic connections, electrophysiological properties and neuropeptide content. These cells provide both inhibitory and disinhibitory modulation of cortical and hippocampal circuits and contribute to the generation of oscillatory rhythms, discriminative information processing and gating of sensory information within the corticolimbic system. All of these functions are abnormal in schizophrenia. Recent postmortem studies have provided consistent evidence that a defect of GABAergic neurotransmission probably plays a role in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Many now believe that such a disturbance may be related to a perturbation of early development, one that may result in a disturbance of cell migration and the formation of normal lamination. The ingrowth of extrinsic afferents, such as the mesocortical dopamine projections, may "trigger" the appearance of a defective GABA system, particularly under stressful conditions when the modulation of the dopamine system is likely to be altered. Based on the regional and subregional distribution of changes in GABA cells in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it has been postulated that the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala may contribute to these abnormalities through an increased flow of excitatory activity. By using "partial" modeling, changes in the GABA system remarkably similar to those seen in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been induced in rat hippocampus. In the years to come, continued investigations of the GABA system in rodent, primate and human brain and the characterization of changes in specific phenotypic subclasses of interneurons in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder will undoubtedly provide important new insights into how the integration of this transmitter system may be altered in neuropsychiatric disease.
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PMID:GABAergic interneurons: implications for understanding schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 1137 16

Recent studies have provided evidence for a deficit of GABA-containing interneurons in the frontal cortex in schizophrenia. That this deficit might be brought about during early foetal or neonatal life is a hypothesis consistent with the substantial indications for a neurodevelopmental aetiology of the disease. GABAergic neurons can be defined by the presence of one of three types of calcium binding proteins, which are thought to have neuroprotective properties. We have undertaken an investigation into the postnatal ontology of these neuronal subtypes and find that calretinin expression is relatively constant and present from before birth, calbindin expression is also present early but redistributes in the cortex over the first months of life, while parvalbumin-immunoreactivity is not observed until between 3 and 6 months of age. Investigation of frontal cortical tissue taken post mortem from a series of schizophrenic patients and matched control subjects revealed that parvalbumin-, but not calretinin-immunoreactive cells are significantly diminished in schizophrenia. These observations support the hypothesis that GABAergic deficits in schizophrenia may stem from toxic events occurring during cortical development which selectively target immature neurons before protection by parvalbumin is conferred.
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PMID:GABAergic neuronal subtypes in the human frontal cortex--development and deficits in schizophrenia. 1147 May 57

Dopaminergic hypofunction in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been associated with the aetiology of negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction of schizophrenia, which are both alleviated by clozapine and other atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine. In rodents, early life exposure to stressful experiences such as social isolation produces a spectrum of symptoms emerging in adult life, which can be restored by antipsychotic drugs. The present series of experiments sought to investigate the effect of clozapine (5-10 mg/kg s.c.), olanzapine (5 mg/kg s.c.), and haloperidol (0.5 mg/kg s.c.) on dopamine (DA) and amino acids in the prelimbic/infralimbic subregion of the mPFC in group- and isolation-reared rats. Rats reared in isolation showed significant and robust deficits in prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle. In group-reared animals, both clozapine and olanzapine produced a significant increase in DA outflow in the mPFC. Isolation-reared rats showed a significant increase in responsiveness to both atypical antipsychotics compared with group-reared animals. In contrast, the administration of haloperidol failed to modify dialysate DA levels in mPFC in either group- or isolation-reared animals. The results also show a positive relationship between the potency of the tested antipsychotics to increase the release of DA in the mPFC and their respective affinities for 5-HT1A relative to DA D2 or D3 receptors. Finally, isolation-reared rats showed enhanced neurochemical responses to the highest dose of clozapine as indexed by alanine, aspartate, GABA, glutamine, glutamate, histidine, and tyrosine. The increased DA responsiveness to the atypical antipsychotic drugs clozapine and olanzapine may explain, at least in part, clozapine- and olanzapine-induced reversal of some of the major behavioral components of the social isolation syndrome, namely hyperactivity and attention deficit.
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PMID:Increased responsiveness of dopamine to atypical, but not typical antipsychotics in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats reared in isolation. 1154 34

Changes in the interaction between dopaminergic and GABAergic systems in the striatum have been suggested to be important in the pathology of schizophrenia. If that hypothesis is correct, these changes could produce inter-related changes in the dopaminergic and GABAergic systems in the striatum from schizophrenic subjects. To test this proposition we measured important markers on dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons in striatum obtained post-mortem from schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic subjects. There was a significant decrease in the density of the dopamine transporter (mean+/-SEM: 230+/-31 vs. 334+/-22fmol/mg ETE; P=0.01), but not nitric oxide synthase, dopamine D(2)-like, D(1)-like, D(3) or GABA(A) receptors in subjects with schizophrenia. There were no inter-related changes in the dopaminergic or GABAergic markers. In the schizophrenic subjects, the density of dopamine D(1)-like receptors decreased with age and was positively correlated with the density of dopamine D(2)-like receptors. This study does not readily add weight to the hypothesis that changes in the interaction between dopamine and GABA in the striatum are important in the pathology of schizophrenia. However, our findings could indicate that changes in the dopamine transporter within the striatum, either because of decreased transporter numbers per se or as a result of innervating neuronal loss, may be involved in the pathology of the illness.
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PMID:Studies on dopaminergic and GABAergic markers in striatum reveals a decrease in the dopamine transporter in schizophrenia. 1159 97

Perhaps the most surprising revelation that has emerged from recent pathologic studies of schizophrenia is the marked cortical regional heterogeneity of the disease. Areal specific alterations of many parameters have been reported (e.g., neuronal density, density of gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA]-immunoreactive cells, and concentration of synapse-associated proteins and messenger ribonucleic acid [mRNA]s). In the past 5 years, as a flood of seemingly contradictory findings have been published, divergent findings often have been regarded as further evidence of the irreplicability and futility of postmortem studies. Although some discrepancies in findings may be due to methodological differences or to the study of different cohorts of patients, a growing number of laboratories are examining the same parameter(s) in multiple cortical areas in a single brain cohort and finding regionally specific abnormalities. These findings provide compelling evidence that cortical pathology in schizophrenia is nonuniform and complex. A major challenge in contemporary schizophrenia research is to make sense of the patterning of whole brain pathology in schizophrenia, as the mosaic of neuropathologic alterations may provide clues to the disease etiology.
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PMID:Regionally diverse cortical pathology in schizophrenia: clues to the etiology of the disease. 1159 41

Rat prefrontal cortex (PFC) receives substantial dopamine (DA) input. This DA innervation appears critical for modulation of PFC cognitive functions. Clinical and experimental studies have also implicated DA in the pathogenesis of a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders including epilepsy and schizophrenia. However, the actions of DA at the cellular level are incompletely understood. Both inhibitory interneurons and pyramidal cells are targets of DA and may express different DA receptor types. Our recent findings suggest that DA can directly excite cortical interneurons and increase the frequency of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs). The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of specific DA receptor agonists on evoked (e) IPSCs. Visually identified pyramidal neurons were studied using whole cell voltage-clamp techniques. Bath application of DA 30 microM reduced IPSC amplitude to 80 +/- 4% (mean +/- SE) of control without any significant change in IPSC kinetics or passive membrane properties. The D1-like DA receptor agonist SKF 38393 reduced IPSC amplitude to 71.5 +/- 8%, whereas the D2-like specific agonist quinpirole has no effect on amplitude (94.5 +/- 5%). The D1-like receptor antagonist SCH 23390 prevented DA inhibition of IPSC amplitude (98.2 +/- 4%), whereas IPSCs were still reduced in amplitude (79.7 +/- 4%) by DA in the presence of the D2-like receptor antagonist sulpiride. DA increased significantly paired-pulse inhibition, whereas responses to puff applied GABA were unaffected. Addition of the PKA inhibitor H-8 blocked the effect of DA on IPSCs. These results suggest that DA can decrease IPSCs in layer II-III PFC neocortical pyramidal cells by activating presynaptic D1-like receptors.
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PMID:Dopamine inhibition of evoked IPSCs in rat prefrontal cortex. 1173 47

Several lines of evidence have implicated prenatal stress and the hippocampal GABA system in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, and prenatal stress is believed to increase the risk for schizophrenia through alterations of this neurotransmitter. To explore this hypothesis, we treated male rats pre- and/or postnatally (P48 and P60) with either corticosterone (CORT) or vehicle to establish three study groups: VVV, receiving vehicle at all three time points; VCC, receiving vehicle prenatally and CORT at both postnatal timepoints; and CCC, receiving CORT at all three timepoints. Animals were sacrificed at either 24 h or 5 days after final injection and examined for mRNA levels of GAD65, GAD67, and the GABA(A) receptor subunits alpha2 and gamma2. At 24 h, GAD65 mRNA was decreased in CA1, CA2, CA4, and dentate gyrus (DG) of VCC rats; this effect was either decreased or reversed in CCC-treated animals. No effect was detected in GAD67 mRNA at 24 h. At 5 days, CORT treatment increased GAD67 mRNA levels in CA1, CA3, and DG. Prenatal treatment with CORT was associated with increased responsiveness only in CA3 and DG. For the GABAA receptor, alpha2 subunit mRNA did not show any change in response to CORT treatment, while that for the gamma2 subunit was decreased in CA2 of both VCC- and CCC-treated animals. Consistent with gamma2 subunit mRNA decreases, benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor binding activity was decreased in CA2 with CORT treatment. Prenatal CORT exposure neither increased nor decreased this effect. These results demonstrate that CORT administration is associated with a complex regulation of mRNA expression for pre- and postnatal aspects of the hippocampal GABA system. Under these conditions, prenatal exposure to CORT may sensitize some of these effects, but does not fundamentally alter the nature of this response.
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PMID:Effects of pre- and postnatal corticosterone exposure on the rat hippocampal GABA system. 1173 3


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