Affiliations: Laboratory of Functional Genomics, Biological Research
Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Temesvári krt. 62., H- 6726,
Hungary | Department of Psychiatry, Albert Szent-Györgyi
Center for Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University
of Szeged, Szeged, Semmelweis u. 6., H-6725, Hungary | Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Institute of
Biochemistry, Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Szeged, Temesvári krt. 62., H-6726, Hungary
Note: [] Corresponding author: Ágnes Zvara, Laboratory of Functional
Genomics, Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged,
Temesvári krt. 62., H- 6726, Hungary. Tel.: +36 62 599 782; Fax: +36 62 432
576; E-mail: zvara@brc.hu
Abstract: Schizophrenia is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders
affecting nearly 1% of the human population. Current diagnosis of
schizophrenia is based on complex clinical symptoms. The use of easily
detectable peripheral molecular markers could substantially help the diagnosis
of psychiatric disorders. Recent studies showed that peripheral blood
lymphocytes (PBL) express subtypes of D1 and D2 subclasses of dopamine
receptors. Recently, dopamine receptor D_3 (DRD3) was found
to be over-expressed in schizophrenic PBL and proposed to be a diagnostic and
follow-up marker for schizophrenia. In this study we screened PBL of 13
drug-naive/drug-free schizophrenic patients to identify additional markers of
schizophrenia. One of the benefits of our study is the use of blood samples of
non-medicated, drug-naive patients. This excludes the possibility that changes
detected in gene expression levels might be attributed to the medication rather
than to the disorder itself. Among others, genes for dopamine receptor
D_2 (DRD2) and the inwardly rectifying potassium channel
(Kir2.3) were found to be over-expressed in microarray analysis. Increased mRNA
levels were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) using the
SybrGreen method and dual labeled TaqMan probes. The use of both molecular
markers allows a more rapid and precise prediction of schizophrenia and might
help find the optimal medication for schizophrenic patients.
