Molecular evidence of synaptic pathology in the CA1 region in schizophrenia.

People with schizophrenia have extensive molecular anomalies on the receiving end of synapses in a crucial part of the brain’s hippocampus. A team that included Natalie Matosin from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, studied postmortem brain samples from 20 people with schizophrenia and 20 matched individuals with no history of psychiatric illness. They used immunoblotting techniques to quantify the expression levels of PSD-95 and several of its associated proteins in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. PSD-95 sits on the receiving side of neuronal connections, where it promotes the maturation and strengthening of excitatory synapses. The researchers found substantial reductions in PSD-95 levels in the schizophrenia subjects, as well as other alterations in linked proteins. Dysregulation of PSD-95 signaling likely contributes to cognitive problems in the illness, they conclude.