schizophrenia

[Translational Psychiatry] The author shows how understanding differences in the stability of attractor network systems in different brain areas can help to provide a scientific basis for relating some mental disorders to the operation of the underlying brain systems.

[Boehringer Ingelheim] Boehringer Ingelheim and the Lieber Institute for Brain Development announced a joint research and licensing collaboration focused on the development of novel centrally acting COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase) inhibitors for the potential treatment of cognitive deficits in a spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.

[Nature Communications] Researchers found that transcripts related to phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) signaling were significantly elevated in human cortical neurons differentiated from iPSCs with the disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) mutation and that inhibition of PDE4 or activation of the cAMP signaling pathway functionally rescued synaptic deficits.

[Molecular Psychiatry] The analyses revealed that both pan-Sorting nexin-19 (SNX19) and pan-Arsenic methyltransferase (AS3MT) were more highly expressed in neurons than non-neurons in layers II/III and VI of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

[Nature Neuroscience] The authors conducted a comprehensive activity-dependent transcriptional and epigenetic profiling of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived GABAergic neurons similar to those of the early developing striatum.

[Nature Reviews Immunology] The authors discuss the essential roles of microglia and innate immune signaling in the assembly and maintenance of a properly functioning nervous system.