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.
“Different physiological functions we are engaged in daily are governed by different brain regions,” Gu said. “That’s an advance provided by our study – because previously we only knew global knockout mice had these behavioral alterations, we didn’t really know what brain region was responsible for them.
“Our study further provides a link between the MAP6 dysfunction and the interneuron signal dysfunction, and we now know that there are two proteins that interact and that one could alter the other,” Gu said. “That opens up potential new directions for treatment strategies.”