Abstract
AbstractSchizophrenia is a very common psychiatric disorder. However, its etiology and pathogenesis is still unknown. Current theory saying that neurotransmitter imbalance such as serotonin or dopamine only provides limited effectiveness in schizophrenia treatment by drugs changing serotonin and dopamine concentration. Despite of such treatment, majority of schizophrenia patients still have very poor prognosis. Thus, the neurotransmitter imbalance theory is not correct. Here, I propose that schizophrenia is actually a TH2 dominant autoimmune disorder. The candidate of autoantigen could be acetylcholine receptors of CNS. My theory can explain the positive as well as negative symptoms of schizophrenia. By microarray analysis of PBMCS, one-tenth of the total 519 significantly expressed genes are immune-related genes. Among them, TH2 related genes are significantly up-regulated including IL-4, histidine decarboxylase, aldehyde dehydrogenase, CCR9, IgE Fc receptor, GATA2, serotonin receptor, phospholipase A2, and prostaglandin D2 synthase. Besides, TH1 and TH17 related genes are down-regulated including CXCL5, cathepsin C, and neutrophil related S100 binding proteins. The new theory sheds a light to better control this detrimental illness. Anti-inflammatory agents could be used to manage schizophrenia in the near future.
Highlights
IntroductionIts incidence and prevalence are higher in developed countries
Schizophrenia is the most detrimental psychiatric disease
Among the 519 genelist, 50 genes are immune-related. It suggests that host immune response plays an important role in the etiology or pathophysiology of schizophrenia
Summary
Its incidence and prevalence are higher in developed countries. This illness has a very high impact on global health, its etiology or pathogenesis is still not known. The most popular theory for schizophrenia etiology is neurotransmitter imbalance theory. The theory says that the imbalance of brain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin cause the symptoms and signs of schizophrenia. According to this theory, many drugs developed to modify CNS neurotransmitter concentrations to try to control schizophrenia. If we don’t know the real etiology or pathophysiology of this disease, we cannot use the correct management strategy to control schizophrenia. Acetylcholine receptor of CNS should be the most likely candidate for the autoantigen
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