Researchers at Columbia University Medical Centre have
illuminated a window into how abnormalities in microRNAs, a
family of molecules that regulate expression of numerous genes,
may contribute to the behavioural and neuronal deficits
associated with schizophrenia and possibly other brain
disorders. In the 11 May issue of Nature Genetics, Maria
Karayiorgou, M.D., professor of psychiatry, and Joseph A. Gogos,
M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and neuroscience
at Columbia University Medical Centre explain how they uncovered
a previously unknown alteration in the production of microRNAs
of a mouse modelled to have the same chromosome 22q11.2
deletions previously identified in humans with schizophrenia.
'We've known for some time that individuals with 22q11.2
microdeletions are at high risk of developing schizophrenia,'
said Karayiorgou, who was instrumental in identifying deletions
of 22q11.2 as a primary risk factor for schizophrenia in humans
several years earlier. 'By digging further into this ch