Schizophrenia Case Studies

This article informs that schizophrenia is correlated to carbonyl stress, which is the accumulation of di-carbonyls (a protein that is formed from sugars, lipids, and amino acids). Accumulation of dicarbonyls, such as methylglycoxal, are indicators of carbonyl stress, and may cause many effects to the body. Some of the effects includes the modification of proteins and the formation of advanced glycation end products, known as AGE. One product of AGE is plasma pentosidine, According to the study, schizophrenics have an increase in concentration of plasma pentosidine and has a significant decrease of pyridoxal, the three forms of vitamin B6, compared to healthy people. In schizophrenics, glutathione-dependent glyoxalase named glyoxalase I (Glo

According to the article, the scientists found the serotonin and glutamate systems in the body are related to schizophrenia. The head-twitch response, caused by the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A, was significantly increased in mice born to influenza virus-infected mother. Maternal viral infection also leads to an increased cellular response induced from hallucinogenic 5-HT2A, which is a serotonin receptor that is necessary for the effects in hallucinogenic drugs. These two results showed that maternal viral infection does not regulate the cellular and behavioral response that involves the serotonin and glutamate system. The frontal cortex itself has some associations to acute psychosis episodes and hyperactivity, which is common in schizophrenics. The upregulation of 5-HT 2A receptors and downregulation of the mGlu2 receptors is common in a psychosis pattern. Since the same patterns were found in the frontal cortex of the adult mice born to influenza virus-infected mothers, it can be considered that schizophrenia and the neurochemical mechanisms responsible for schizophrenia corresponds to maternal