Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 3, Issue 5, 2003

In the opening sentence of their preface to the Third Edition of The Principles of Neural Science, Eric Kandel, James Schwartz and Thomas Jessell state, “The goal of neural science is to understand the mind, how we perceive, move, think and remember”. It is significant that the stated goal of neural science is to understand the “mind” rather than the brain when the goal is to understand the higher functions that we attribute to Read More

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder remain two of the most severe and difficult to treat psychotic disorders hampered by our poor understanding of their pathologies. The development of typical antipsychotic drugs opened an avenue of investigation through the dopamine D2 receptor in schizophrenia. With the reintroduction of the atypical antipsychotic clozapine came the development of a new generation of atypical ag Read More

Apolipoprotein D (apoD) is an atypical plasma apolipoprotein and, based on its primary structure, it is a member of the lipocalin protein superfamily. Lipocalins have been extensively used as disease markers and, accordingly, apoD has become increasingly recognized as an important factor in the pathology of human neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. ApoD expression is increased in the plasma and brains of subje Read More

An increasing body of evidence suggests that the muscarinic receptors may present a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia. This argument is supported by studies using postmortem CNS tissue and a neuroimaging study that have shown there are regionally specific decreases in selective muscarinic receptors in the CNS of subjects with schizophrenia. This raises the possibility that drugs specif Read More

The classification of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as two separate disease entities has been hotly debated almost from the moment of its inception with Kraepelin's descriptions of “dementia praecox” and “manic-depressive insanity” in 1896. Kraepelin's nosologic distinction was based on clinical observation of symptomatology and outcome, and even today, despite major advances in science and technology, differential Read More

Neuropsychiatric disorders are generally diagnosed based on a classification of behavioral and, in some cases, specific neurological deficits. The lack of distinct quantitative and qualitative biological descriptors at the anatomical and cellular level complicates the search for and understanding of the neurobiology of these disorders. The advent of microarray technology has enabled large-scale profiling of transcriptional activity, Read More

In terms of impact on and cost to society psychiatric disorders are among the most important health problems of today. Current estimates from the US suggest that the collective cost of psychiatric diseases could amount to one-third of the total health care budget with a cumulative lifetime prevalence of 30%. While undoubtedly improvements have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of at least the symptoms of ment Read More

Epidemiological studies have shown increased incidence of schizophrenia in patients subjected to different forms of pre- or perinatal stress. However, as the onset of schizophrenic illness does not usually occur until adolescence or early adulthood, it is not yet fully understood how disruption of early brain development may ultimately lead to malfunction years later. In order to elucidate a possible role for neurodevel Read More

Mood disorders and schizophrenia share a number of common properties, including: genetic susceptibility; differences in brain structure and drug based therapy. Some genetic loci may even confer susceptibility for bipolar mood disorder and schizophrenia, and some atypical antipsychotic drugs are used as mood stabilizers. As schizophrenia is associated with aberrant neurodevelopment, could this also be true for mood dis Read More