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Neuregulin 1-erbB signaling and the molecular/cellular basis of schizophrenia

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 575–580 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disease that affects 0.5–1% of the world's adult population. The hypothesis that this disease is a developmental disorder of the nervous system with late onset of its characteristic symptoms has been gaining acceptance in past years. However, the anatomical, cellular and molecular bases of schizophrenia remain unclear. Numerous studies point to alterations in different aspects of brain development as possible causes of schizophrenia, including defects in neuronal migration, neurotransmitter receptor expression and myelination. Recently, the gene that encodes neuregulin-1 (NRG1) has been identified as a potential susceptibility gene for schizophrenia, and defects in the expression of erbB3, one of the NRG1 receptors, have been shown to occur in the prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients, suggesting that NRG1-erbB signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. These findings open new approaches to defining the molecular and cellular basis of schizophrenia in more mechanistic terms.

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Figure 1: Potential relationships between NRG1 function and schizophrenia phenotypes.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01 NS35884 to G.C.) and a Conte Center Grant (National Institute of Mental Health P50 MH066392 to J.D.B.). We thank J.N. Hirschhorn for help with meta-analysis of the genetic data and A. Rosenbaum for help with the illustration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neuroscience, and Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Gabriel Corfas & Kristine Roy

  2. Departments of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 10029, New York, USA

    Joseph D Buxbaum

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  1. Gabriel Corfas
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  3. Joseph D Buxbaum
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Correspondence to Gabriel Corfas.

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Corfas, G., Roy, K. & Buxbaum, J. Neuregulin 1-erbB signaling and the molecular/cellular basis of schizophrenia. Nat Neurosci 7, 575–580 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1258

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