Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered a key mechanism that explains how compounds they're developing can suppress schizophrenia-like symptoms in mice without side effects.
On the basis of this discovery, reported this month in the journal Neuron, "we now have [a] much stronger understanding of the therapeutic potential and mechanism of action of compounds that are advancing to clinical development," said P. Jeffrey Conn, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery.
An estimated 3 million Americans have schizophrenia, which is associated with excessive amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the forebrain called the striatum.
Current medications reduce hallucinations and delusions, the hallmark of schizophrenia, by blocking dopamine receptors. But because they also block dopamine receptors in the cerebral cortex, they can worsen cognitive difficulties.
Daniel J. Foster, Jermaine M. Wilson, Daniel H. Remke, M. Suhaib Mahmood, M. Jashim Uddin, Jürgen Wess, Sachin Patel, Lawrence J. Marnett, Colleen M. Niswender, Carrie K. Jones, Zixiu Xiang, Craig W. Lindsley, Jerri M. Rook, P. Jeffrey Conn. Antipsychotic-like Effects of M4 Positive Allosteric Modulators Are Mediated by CB2 Receptor-Dependent Inhibition of Dopamine Release. Neuron, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.08.017
Good news for sufferers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @05:53PM
If by chance Trump gets elected, now maybe we can fix him in office ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @06:47PM
How do you plan to get him to take it? Tell him it's a male enhancement drug?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @06:48PM
I agree. At least that way he can't have any more of those children.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday September 21 2016, @07:19PM
Fix him? The man already has really tiny hands!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:36PM
It's not the multiple personalities that scare me, it's the onset of Alzheimers.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @01:06AM
"Anonymous Coward" has been one of the most disliked posters on Slashdot and SoylentNews for many years. He's an obvious loser, so Mr. Trump has never been impressed by the posts from AC.
- John Barron
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday September 22 2016, @02:14PM
Fix him in office? What, you mean President for Life? Democracy is like a bus?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:18PM
Cb1 give the buzz, cb2 the mellowness, appetite and antiinflammatory effects.
Higly selective cb1 agonists produce an unpleasant paranoid trip.
Non selective cb agonists produce only a weak buzz.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @03:05AM
If I could have switched off my mother's schizophrenia back in 1965, my childhood would have been easier. And I might not have been so screwed up as an adult.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @04:37AM
Well, if you could switch off the schizo you blame on your mother, we would all be better off.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 22 2016, @05:13AM
So far, there is not a single comment that addresses the science or the application of the science. I expect more of my fellow Soylentils, and since this is not one of my many areas of expertise, I call upon anyone who has such to chip in. No, jmorris, not you! Yes, Francis, we know you do not know something about this as well. And no, Runaway, just no. Nothing to do with hillbilly cable news and talk radio, or muslims, so just stay the hell away from it, please. So, anyone? Bueller?
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday September 23 2016, @03:48PM
(Score: 1) by sbgen on Friday September 23 2016, @05:15PM
Perhaps here is another thing to consider - time needed. It took me about an hour to translate what I read in the paper into plain English and type the response below. I know it still sounds complicated but English is not my first language and the work is technical. And, the paper is solidly pay walled - I can get it in the lab only. Here are multiple curses for closed publication model [.....]
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 2, Informative) by sbgen on Friday September 23 2016, @04:40PM
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @02:10PM
i find it kind of interesting that the stuff related to dopamine production signaling are also receptors for cbd and thc. maybe the theory of a marijuana connection has basis in fact after all.