Tsytsarev V, Volnova A B, Inyushin M Y
University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, 20 Penn st., 21201 MD, USA.
Institute of Translational Biomedicine, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia.
Cell tissue biol. 2025 Aug;19(Suppl 1):S104-S116. doi: 10.1134/s1990519x25600346. Epub 2025 Aug 19.
Mental disorders such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and various psychoses exhibit incredibly diverse clinical presentations, with symptoms varying significantly among patients. Numerous studies have provided substantial evidence that genetic factors play a major role in the development of such conditions, particularly schizophrenia. However, the genetics of schizophrenia and other mental disorders are highly complex. The development of these diseases is influenced not only by genetic factors, but also by other, often unidentified, contributors. For a long time, this led to the belief that the pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders-primarily schizophrenia-could not be directly linked to transmissible processes. In other words, it was considered impossible for a mental illness to be transmitted from one person to another. In recent years, however, some findings have challenged this assumption. There have been reports of schizophrenia-like symptoms emerging in recipients of bone marrow transplants from donors diagnosed with schizophrenia, as well as cases of sustained remission in patients with schizophrenia following transplantation from donors without any psychiatric history. Experimental animal models have also provided evidence supporting the plausibility of such a mechanism. While these mechanisms cannot alter the recipient's genotype, they likely have the potential to initiate or suppress pathological processes. At present, there is no widely accepted biological explanation for how these effects occur. Nonetheless, ongoing research in this area appears crucial for understanding the pathogenesis of mental disorders and for developing innovative therapeutic strategies. The aim of this review is to summarize current research on the potential role of transmissible mechanisms in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders, and to explore how these findings may inform the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
精神障碍，如精神分裂症、重度抑郁症、自闭症谱系障碍和各种精神病，表现出极其多样的临床表现，患者之间的症状差异很大。大量研究提供了充分证据，表明遗传因素在这些疾病的发生发展中起主要作用，尤其是精神分裂症。然而，精神分裂症和其他精神障碍的遗传学非常复杂。这些疾病的发展不仅受遗传因素影响，还受其他往往不明的因素影响。长期以来，这导致人们认为主要精神疾病——主要是精神分裂症——的发病机制无法直接与可传播过程联系起来。换句话说，人们认为精神疾病不可能从一个人传染给另一个人。然而，近年来，一些发现对这一假设提出了挑战。有报告称，接受被诊断患有精神分裂症的供体骨髓移植的受者出现了类似精神分裂症的症状，以及在接受没有任何精神病史的供体移植后，精神分裂症患者持续缓解的病例。实验动物模型也提供了支持这种机制合理性的证据。虽然这些机制无法改变受体的基因型，但它们可能有启动或抑制病理过程的潜力。目前，对于这些效应如何发生，尚无广泛接受的生物学解释。尽管如此，该领域正在进行的研究对于理解精神障碍的发病机制和开发创新治疗策略似乎至关重要。本综述的目的是总结当前关于可传播机制在精神分裂症和其他神经精神障碍中潜在作用的研究，并探讨这些发现如何为新治疗方法的开发提供信息。
