Mice Bred to Mimic Schizophrenia at John's Hopkins

Schizophrenia is a disorder characterized by delusions, most often hearing voices and an increasing belief that someone is out to get the person suffering from it. Anti-psychotics most often treat the drug effectively, but many patients will discontinue medication for a while, resulting in a hospitalization cycle for many people suffering from the illness. During the middle parts of the twentieth century, electroshock therapy was also used extensively, although the use of electroshock as a therapy diminished after the 1960s.

Drugs that stimulate the mental illness schizophrenia have often been used in researching the disease, but the drugs have one limit. They do not enable scientists to properly study the disease. Researchers at John Hopkin's university have bred a strain of mice whose behaviors closely mimic the characteristics of the illness as it occurs in humans.

The mice produced by the researchers were more easily agitated in open fields, not as easily able to find hidden foods and swam for shorter periods of time than regular mice. The behavior mimic the effects of hyperactivity, apathy and, smell defects that are hallmarks of the disorder in people, according to the BBC. When the rodents were placed under MRI, there were differences in brain structure similar to those found in humans.

The scientists conducting the study found and identified a gene which they labeled DISC-1. The rodents bred by the researchers produced the normal protein, and a shortened form of the DISC-1 protein that affects how the brain interprets information. Previous attempts to develop animal experiments to do research on the illness have fallen apart because the researchers used drugs to mimic the symptoms rather than conditions inherent in the animal.

The symptoms the mice displayed do not fully mimic schizophrenia in humans because more than one factor contributes to the disease before the clinical definition for a diagnosis can be met. Researchers hope by breeding it with other strains of mice a cure for the disease may be possible. For now, the defective gene will enable mental health professionals to study how external factors contribute to the development of the disease. In the future breeding with other types of mice may determine the exact cause of the illness. Someday a cure or better medications than those currently available might be found if the exact cause of it can be determined.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6922962.stm

http://www.physorg.com/news105036711.html

http://www.cellscience.com/shdss2.html