Cell Type Discovery Could Guide New Schizophrenia Treatments
Researchers have identified specific cell types that underlie schizophrenia, according to a study in Nature Genetics. The findings suggest that a few major cell types, each of which originates in distinct areas of the brain, contribute to the disorder.
“Understanding which cell types are affected in a disease is of critical importance for developing new medicines to improve their treatment. If we do not know what causes a disorder, we cannot study how to treat it,” said researcher Nathan Skene, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and UCL Institute of Neurology in London, England.
Hundreds of genes are linked with schizophrenia, and scientists have struggled to understand what links the genes and whether they affect the entire brain or target specific components. Investigators in this study combined detailed lists of genes associated with schizophrenia with new maps of all the genes used in different cell types in the brain to identify the cell types underlying the disorder.
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“This marks a transition in how we can use large genetic studies to understand the biology of disease,” said Jens Hjerling-Leffler, PhD, research group leader at Karolinska Institutet. “With the results from this study, we are giving the scientific community a chance to focus their efforts where it will give maximum effect.”
Because of rapid progress in 2 scientific fields—human genetics and single cell transcriptomics—studying diseases in this way is a new option that potentially could guide the development of new treatments.
“One question now is whether these brain cell types are related to the clinical features of schizophrenia. For example, greater dysfunction in one cell type could make treatment response less likely. Dysfunction in a different cell type could increase the chances of long-term cognitive effect,” said study coauthor Patrick Sullivan, MD, FRANZCP, professor, Karolinska Institutet and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “This would have important implications for development of new treatments, as separate drugs may be required for each cell type involved.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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