Working with model mice, post-mortem human brains, and people with schizophrenia, researchers have discovered that a subtype of schizophrenia is related to abnormally high levels hydrogen sulfide in the brain. Experiments showed that this abnormality likely results from a DNA-modifying reaction during development that lasts throughout life.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In people with schizophrenia, PPI is lowed, meaning that their startle response is not dampened as much as it should be after the prepulse.
The PPI test is a good behavioral marker, and although it cannot directly help us understand the biology behind schizophrenia, it was the starting point that led to current discoveries.
“Nobody has ever thought about a causal link between hydrogen sulfide and schizophrenia,” says team leader Takeo Toshikawa.
Testing in mice and postmortem brains indicated that high MPST levels were associated with changes in DNA that lead to permanently altered gene expression.
So, the next step was for the team to search for environmental factors that could result in permanently increased MPST production.
Our results provide a new principle or paradigm for designing drugs, and we are currently testing whether inhibiting the synthesis of hydrogen sulfide can alleviate symptoms in mouse models of schizophrenia."
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