Investigation of rare variants involved in pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Personal genome-based initiatives toward understanding bran diseases
• Project/Area Number: 22129007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Biological Sciences
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science
• Principal Investigator: ITOKAWA Masanari 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 精神行動医学研究分野, 分野長 (40332324)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAKIZAWA Shunya 東海大学, 医学部, 教授 (70197234) ; ARAI Makoto 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 精神行動医学研究分野, 副参事研究員 (80356253)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 遺伝子

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We previously reported that higher levels of plasma pentosidine, a well known biomarker for AGEs, and decreased serum pyridoxal levels were found in a subpopulation of schizophrenic patients. 　However, there is as yet no clinical characterization of this subset of schizophrenia. In this study, we found that these patients shared many clinical features with treatment resistant schizophrenia, as defined by Kane et al. These include a higher proportion of in-patients, low educational status, higher frequency and longer duration of hospitalization, and higher doses of anti-psychotic medication compared to patients without carbonyl stress. Interestingly, a number of psychopathological symptoms showed significant association with serum vitamin B6 levels. Our results support the idea that treatment regimes reducing carbonyl stress, such as supplementation of pyridoxamine could provide novel therapeutic benefits for this subgroup of patients.

Free Research Field

精神医学