Journal
EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
Volume 18, Issue 10, Pages 768-772Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2008.05.007
Keywords
schizophrenia; glutamate; endophenotypes
Funding
- German Federal Ministry for Education and Research BMBF [01 GI 023]
- German Research Network on Schizophrenia
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Wa 731/4, Wa 731/6]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In recent years, evidence has been accumulating indicating a major role of glutamate in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Of particular importance in this regard are the metabotropic glutamate receptors (GRM). Thus, a recently published trial of the amino acid analogue LY2140023, which exerts its effects through the activation of the glutamate receptors GRM3/GRM2, showed an improvement of positive and negative symptoms comparable to treatment with olanzapine. A functional variant of GRM3 has been described which modulates synaptic glutamate levels. We assessed whether this functional variant rs6465084 is related to schizophrenia in a large sample of patients and controls. We found an increased frequency of the A allele (p=0.027) and the AA genotype (p=0.024) in schizophrenia patients. Moreover, in an assessment of schizophrenia endophenotypes, patients of the AA genotype performed poorly in the digit symbol test, a measure of attention (p=0.008). Our results provide further evidence for the potential importance of the glutamate receptor GRM3 in schizophrenia, and indicate that the novel antipsychotic LY2140023 may actually be targeting a pathogenic pathway of schizophrenia. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available