Mei Lin, Xiong Wen-Cheng
Program of Developmental Neurobiology, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008 Jun;9(6):437-52. doi: 10.1038/nrn2392. Epub 2008 May 14.
Schizophrenia is a highly debilitating mental disorder that affects approximately 1% of the general population, yet it continues to be poorly understood. Recent studies have identified variations in several genes that are associated with this disorder in diverse populations, including those that encode neuregulin 1 (NRG1) and its receptor ErbB4. The past few years have witnessed exciting progress in our knowledge of NRG1 and ErbB4 functions and the biological basis of the increased risk for schizophrenia that is potentially conferred by polymorphisms in the two genes. An improved understanding of the mechanisms by which altered function of NRG1 and ErbB4 contributes to schizophrenia might eventually lead to the development of more effective therapeutics.
精神分裂症是一种极具致残性的精神障碍，影响着约1%的普通人群，但人们对其仍知之甚少。最近的研究已经在不同人群中发现了与这种疾病相关的多个基因的变异，包括那些编码神经调节蛋白1（NRG1）及其受体ErbB4的基因。在过去几年里，我们对NRG1和ErbB4功能以及这两个基因多态性可能导致精神分裂症风险增加的生物学基础的认识取得了令人兴奋的进展。更好地理解NRG1和ErbB4功能改变导致精神分裂症的机制，最终可能会促成更有效的治疗方法的开发。
