The discovery of a physical interaction between two proteins in brain cells that can be traced in mice to control of movement, anxiety and memory could one day open the door to development of new schizophrenia treatment strategies, researchers say.
The research group is the first to determine that the two proteins, both among the dozens of proteins related to risk for the development of schizophrenia, bind to each other under normal conditions in multiple regions of the brain, and that their connection was found in mice to be key to maintaining normal movement, memory function and anxiety regulation.
"There are more than 100 genes that have been identified as risk genes for schizophrenia, but we still don't know the real mechanisms behind those risks," Gu said."We're hopeful that getting a better understanding of this mechanism could help in the long run to find a new treatment that could benefit patients with schizophrenia."Previous post-mortem studies have identified risk genes for schizophrenia based on signs of protein dysfunction detected in brain tissue.
The next step in Gu's lab will be exploring any links between social behavior in mice and these proteins' functions in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region important to decision making and planning.In a series of biochemistry and cell biology experiments, the researchers also determined how the proteins bind and how that connection affects their positioning inside neurons. Results showed MAP6 stabilizes the Kv3.
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