Geneticist from Harvard Medical School aims to find origins of the mental affliction
Like many other psychiatric diseases, schizophrenia has yet to find a root cause for its origins. However, the latest research conducted by a team of scientists led by Steve McCarroll, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, may bring us even closer to the answer than ever before. New findings were posted in the science journal, Nature, earlier last week.
At any given period, up to one per cent of the population will have schizophrenia. The usual behaviours include talking to oneself, hallucinating, acting paranoid around others, and talking about odd or strange opinions.
Behavioural symptoms of schizophrenia often begin to surface in the stages of adolescence and early adulthood. This is the age range in which the brain begins to formulate the pruning back the number of places in the brain that signals are sent to and from, which are called ‘synapses’.
Those with schizophrenia have an increased manifestation of the gene ‘C4,’ which permits the escalation of the pruning of synapses throughout the brain’s neural communication. The brain is essentially sending out neural connections normally, but the increased speed at which pruning occurs causes the connections to fail before they can make a full association. Schizophrenia is when the process of synaptic pruning is carried out too often and too much, cutting off connections at a far faster pace than the average brain.
The over-activity of synaptic pruning in the brain does not necessarily cause schizophrenia on its own, but other contributing factors could contribute to the development of the disease. There have been over 100 different DNA indicators looked at as a potential cause of schizophrenia, but none have had the detailed biological explanations to back up their claims. The research done by McCarroll is differentiated from those before it because he has observable scientific evidence for his claim.
The C4 gene can take different forms. Researchers from the study found that the more active the gene form is within the brain the more a person is at risk of developing the disease. It is estimated that those with the C4 gene are about 30 per cent more likely to develop schizophrenia than that of the general population.
McCarrol’s results have yet to be fully proven, but could substantiate a huge breakthrough in understanding the therapeutic treatment or even eradication of schizophrenia. If the research is correct, there would be hope for those suffering with schizophrenia to, at the very least, lessen their symptoms. Although research is getting a little bit closer, it is cautioned that the development of treatments to help with the disease would be years away from fulfillment.