“The exciting results we report today suggest that the Neuregulin 1 pathway provides promising points of intervention for the development of effective new treatments for schizophrenia,” said Dr. Later-stage drug development work in schizophrenia will be conducted under deCODE’s therapeutics alliance with Roche. deCODE has already performed a high-throughput screen against a promising target within the neuregulin pathway and is continuing its drug discovery work at its Chicago-based pharmaceuticals group. The deCODE team analyzed mice in which certain segments of the Neuregulin 1 or of one of its key receptors, ERB4, were knocked out, and found that the knockout mice exhibited behaviors and disruptions in normal neurotransmission similar to those seen in schizophrenics. Although no previous research has established a link between Neuregulin 1 and schizophrenia, it is critical to neuronal development and to the proper transmission of messages within the central nervous system (CNS). ![]() The findings reported today are further supported by at least five previous studies that offered suggestive linkage between schizophrenia and a region on the short arm of chromosome 8 containing the Neuregulin 1 gene.ĭeCODE’s functional studies in mice offer compelling additional evidence for the involvement of the Neuregulin 1 pathway in some of the major biological dysfunctions in schizophrenia. Preliminary data from association studies in Western European and Asian cohorts suggest that this haplotype is also significantly linked to the disease in broader populations. Company scientists used this data to home in on a particular haplotype – a small segment of DNA that is inherited as a unit – within Neuregulin 1 that appears to confer more than twice the average risk for developing schizophrenia. deCODE’s research brought together genome-wide and detailed genotypic data from more than 800 volunteer patients and unaffected relatives from across Iceland. These include a genealogical database covering the entire Icelandic population unrivalled genotyping capacity and know-how and the company’s high-density genetic map of the human genome. The causes of schizophrenia are unknown, but the disease tends to run in certain families and is thus known to have a significant genetic component.ĭeCODE scientists succeeded in establishing the link between schizophrenia and the Neuregulin 1 gene, located on the short arm of chromosome 8, by leveraging the company’s unique resources for pinpointing key genes involved in common diseases. ![]() Patients frequently suffer from delusions, hallucinations, and blunted emotions, and current treatments are effective only in alleviating some of these symptoms. The paper, entitled “Neuregulin 1 and susceptibility to schizophrenia,” is published in the online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, accessible at Schizophrenia is a chronic and progressive mental illness affecting between 0.5 and 1.0 percent of the adult population worldwide. The Neuregulin pathway has yielded druggable targets which deCODE is employing in its collaboration with Roche to discover new and more effective treatments for schizophrenia. Reykjavik, ICELAND, JdeCODE genetics (Nasdaq/Nasdaq Europe:DCGN) today announced the publication of a paper by a deCODE-led team of scientists describing the company’s pioneering work on the genetics of schizophrenia.The paper presents data from deCODE’s pathbreaking population genetics research linking Neuregulin 1 to schizophrenia, as well as the results of subsequent functional studies underscoring the role of this gene in the pathology of the disease. ![]() Research yields promising drug targets impacting underlying biology of the disease Findings form the basis of deCODE’s most advanced drug discovery program
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