An Association Study Between Schizophrenia And Genes In The Glutamate And Gamma-aminobutyric Acid Pathway

Schizophrenia is one of the most common, devastating, and least understood neuropsychiatric illnesses afflicting the human population. A world wide prevalence of nearly 1% makes schizophrenia one of the most widespread disorders known. Evidence from family, twin, and adoption studies has strongly implicated genetic factors in the etiology of schizophrenia, but the mode of transmission is complex. A number of genes with small to moderate effects are involved in combination in the etiology of the disorder. However, the identification of disease susceptibility genes has been proven difficult. It is important to improve the idea and method in studying the disease. Strict clinical diagnosis and subgroup of patients is the primary condition for the research. Genes in susceptibility should be study systematically. Proper mathematics methods should be used to extract the susceptibility genotype combinations from the data warehouse.Glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid are two of the most important neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Several lines of evidence implicated the altered glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid system in schizophrenia. Moreover, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid and dopamine neurotransmission could interact at different anatomical levels, and affect different aspects of dopamine function. And glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid are involved in one pathway. Therefore, genes of the enzymes involved in the pathways are natural candidates for the genetic studies of schizophrenia, and should be systematically studied to extract their combined effects on the susceptibility to the disorder.