Brain cell malfunction in schizophrenia discovered

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have discovered that DNA stays too tightly wound in certain brain cells of schizophrenic subjects. The research adds to a developing recognition that cellular-level changes not tied to genetic defects play important roles in causing disease, in what is being called a promising new field in epigenetic research.

The findings suggest that drugs already in development for other diseases might eventually offer hope as a treatment for schizophrenia and related conditions in the elderly, with the treatment thought to be most effective in younger people, where it could minimizing or even reversing symptoms of schizophrenia.

One critical area of epigenetic research is tied to histones. Scripps Research Associate Professor Elizabeth Thomas said: “There’s so much DNA in each cell of your body that it could never fit in your cells unless it was tightly and efficiently packed.... Histone ‘tails’ regularly undergo chemical modifications to either relax the DNA or repack it.”