Understanding the pathology of schizophrenia: recent advances from the study of the molecular architecture of postmortem CNS tissue

Abstract

The use of central nervous system (CNS) tissue obtained postmortem has long underpinned efforts to understand the neurobiology of schizophrenia, but the ability to use such tissue in conjunction with a wide variety of methodologies has seen a renaissance of interest in this area of research. Recent findings have shown changes in markers in a number of neurotransmitter systems in the brains of subjects with schizophrenia which include the dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic systems of the CNS. Many of these changes also appear to be regionally specific, and abnormalities in non-neurotransmitter specific pathways have been found in schizophrenia. Changes in the neurotransmitter release pathways in schizophrenia may be important in the pathology of the illness, and recent findings suggest that abnormalities in the Wnt pathway, which controls transcription selectivity in cells, may be involved. Studies using CNS material obtained postmortem clearly show that the pathology of schizophrenia is complex while the polygenetic nature of the illness may be adding to this complexity.