Abstract
Schizophrenia is highly heritable, and the identification of its genetic factors is receiving great attention. In this review, we digested current genetic findings about schizophrenia. At first, DISC‐1 and ‐2 derived from a large Scottish family, and velo‐cardio‐facial syndrome caused by microdeletion of 22q11, are hot topics in cytogenic studies. Secondly, selections and classifications of samples become the biggest problems in linkage studies, because many following studies failed to confirm replicated linkages. Thirdly, a lot of functional and/or positional candidate genes are analyzed. Some genes, including NRG1, DTNBP1, G72, DAAO, RGS4, and PRODH2, are recently identified in association studies. In the last method, the novel way to select functional candidate genes with a transcriptome analysis is getting presented. The transcriptome analysis makes it possible to identify up‐ and down‐regulated genes from overall transcriptions (mRNAs). We also have an ongoing case‐control study about schizophrenia, following serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), one of the transcriptome analyses. We analyzed changes of gene expressions in methamphetamine‐ and phencyclidine‐treated rodent cerebral cortexes, two well‐known animal models of schizophrenia. We identified their homologous 209 human genes as candidates. These findings will bring us new understanding of pathophysiologic aspects and further drug targets toward schizophrenia. Drug Dev. Res. 60:111–118, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.