Autophagy and Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is characterized by abnormal thoughts, behaviors and speech, along with a decreased perception of reality that can included visual or auditory hallucinations, withdrawal of social activity and lack of motivation, etc. Many hypotheses related to the causes of SCZ have been proposed, but the underlying neuropathological mechanism remains unclear. Recent studies have suggested that there is an association between autophagy and SCZ. The strongest evidence for this comes from the expression of ATGs in the BA22 of postmortem samples from SCZ patients, coinciding with some of the brain imaging studies and certain hypotheses about SCZ in interpreting the positive symptoms. Autophagy dysfunction in the hippocampus, especially in the CA2 region, may relate to deficits of social communication and interaction in SCZ patients. mTOR regulation of autophagy is also potentially a piece of strong supporting evidence for the autophagic neuropathogenesis of SCZ. In vitro studies show that antipsychotics often induce autophagy through distinct mechanisms of drug action, but they may all share common features as autophagy inducers and antagonists of dopamine receptors.