Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : January 29, 2016 12:51 PM IST
Scientists from Broad Institute of MIT& Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital have found the exact cause of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterised by delusions or hallucinations. It is a rare disorder and several factors including environmental, psychosocial and genetic factors are responsible for this disease. but, now scientist have identified the exact genes that cause the disease. Read: 5 symptoms of schizophrenia that you should know
In this breakthrough study published in the journal Nature, the scientists have been able to find out how genes increase one's risk of schizophrenia. They found that through a process of synaptic pruning, the brain sheds weak or redundant connection between neurons as it matures. This usually happens during adolescence or early adulthood in the area of the brain associated with thinking and planning skills. People who contain genes that accelerate pruning are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia. The study also suggests that the process of pruning goes haywire in people with schizophrenia. Read: First few weeks of your birth decide your risk of schizophrenia
The researchers also studied the location on the human genome associated with schizophrenia. The locus is called MHC and using advanced statistical methods scientists found that the MHC contained four variables of a gene called C4 which produced two types of proteins called C4-A and C4-B. On analysing genomes of more than 64,000 people, they found that people with schizophrenia have an overactive C4-A than control subjects. They came to a conclusion that C4-A drives pruning and hence could be responsible for schizophrenia.
The significance of the study. The treatment of schizophrenia usually involves managing its symptoms using antipsychotic medication. These new findings can help design treatments for the disease although not in the near future. The findings of the study are a first step towards solving the mystery of a disease that has puzzled researchers for the longest possible time. Watch this video to know more about the research. Video source--Broad Institue/YouTube
