Elucidation of the etiology of and overcoming schizophrenia by applying the investigation of patients with schizophrenia whose L-serine synthesis pathway is disturbed

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25461740
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Dokkyo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Ozeki Yuji 獨協医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (90303768)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 統合失調症 / L-セリン / D-セリン / ホスホセリンホスファターゼ / ホスホセリンアミノトランスフェラーゼ / ホスホグリセリン酸デヒドロゲナーゼ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The treatment for schizophrenia has improved, but there are some symptoms which do not improve entirely. The cause of illness remains being unexplained. If the etiology of schizophrenia is elucidated, a treatment and the prophylaxis of schizophrenia will progress. There are various hypotheses, but we hypothesized that the L-serine synthesis pathway might be related with a disease, so we investigated the L-serine synthesis pathway system in the patients. As a result, we found synthetic ability of the synthetases of L-serine increasing in the patients. In addition, we found that quantities of the mRNA expression of the enzymes which synthesize L-serine were decreased in the patients. However, as a whole, the association between such change and blood concentration of L-serine was not found. In future, we are going to investigate the relationship between L-serine synthesis pathway and the blood concentration of L-serine or amino acids related to L-serine.

Free Research Field

精神医学