schizophrenia tagged posts

Body Versus Brain: New evidence for an Autoimmune cause of Schizophrenia

Cell-based assay to detect the anti-NCAM1 autoantibody
NCAM1 is induced only in green cells (HeLa cells). Serum from patients with anti-NCAM1 autoantibody react only to green cells (framed in red).

Researchers have found that some people with schizophrenia have autoantibodies — which are made by the immune system and recognize the body’s own proteins, rather than outside threats such as viruses or bacteria — against NCAM1, a protein that’s importa.nt for communication between brain cells. The patients’ autoantibodies also caused schizophrenia-related behaviors in mice. These findings may improve the diagnosis and treatment of a subset of patients with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects how people act, think, and perceive reality...

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Hippocampus MRI
Confocal image of a mouse brain tissue shows the astrocytes (red) and neurons (green). (UCR/Ethell lab)

A team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside has found a new mechanism responsible for the abnormal development of neuronal connections in the mouse brain that leads to seizures and abnormal social behaviors.

The researchers focused on the hippocampus, which plays an important role in learning and social interactions; and synapses, specialized contacts between neurons.

Each neuron in the brain receives numerous excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs...

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Broccoli Sprout compound may Restore Brain Chemistry Imbalance linked to Schizophrenia


Sedlak’s daughter grows broccoli sprouts Credit: Thomas Sedlak

In a series of recently published studies using animals and people, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have further characterized a set of chemical imbalances in the brains of people with schizophrenia related to the chemical glutamate. And they figured out how to tweak the level using a compound derived from broccoli sprouts.

They say the results advance the hope that supplementing with broccoli sprout extract, which contains high levels of the chemical sulforaphane, may someday provide a way to lower the doses of traditional antipsychotic medicines needed to manage schizophrenia symptoms, thus reducing unwanted side effects of the medicines.

“It’s possible that future studies could show sulforaphane to ...

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Largest Brain Study of 62,454 Scans Identifies Drivers of Brain Aging

Drivers of brain aging. Credit: Daniel G. Amen

Schizophrenia, cannabis use, and alcohol abuse are just several disorders that are related to accelerated brain aging. In the largest known brain imaging study, scientists from Amen Clinics (Costa Mesa, CA), Google, John’s Hopkins University, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco evaluated 62,454 brain SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans of more than 30,000 individuals from 9 months old to 105 years of age to investigate factors that accelerate brain aging. SPECT tomography) evaluates regional cerebral blood flow in the brain that is reduced in various disorders.

Lead author, psychiatrist Daniel G...

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