Schizophrenia markers in hair

In a mouse-based study, researchers at the Japan Institute of Science and Chemistry and others found that a protease called MPST, which is responsible for catalyzing hydrogen sulfide, was overexpressed in the brains of mice that exhibit symptoms of schizophreniaTests showed that the level of hydrogen sulfide in mice with schizophrenia symptoms was indeed much higher than the level of hydrogen sulfide in normal laboratory miceFurther experiments showed that the symptoms of schizophrenia in mice improved significantly after the gene encoded MPST was removedteam analyzed human samples and found that the level of expression of the MPST gene in the brain after death in patients with schizophrenia was significantly higher than in normal people, and that the level of this protease in the brain was associated with the severity of pre-life clinical symptomsThe researchers also examined samples of hair follicles in more than 150 patients with schizophrenia and found that their MPST-related messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels were much higher than normal in people, suggesting that MPST levels in the sacs could act as a biomarker of schizophreniaresearch is published online October 29 in the Journal of Molecular Biology and Molecular Medicine(Reporter Liu Xia)