0:00
I'm Atsushi Kamiya,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Psychiatry,
Johns Hopkins University.
Today, I will talk
about "The Discovery of
Schizophrenia Drug Targets
from DISC1 Mechanisms."
0:14
The history of modern
pharmacological treatment of
major mental disorders,
including schizophrenia,
started as a serendipitous
identification of
antipsychotic effects of
chlorpromazine in 1952.
Most neuroleptics
that are currently
being used in clinical
psychiatry have been
developed based on the findings
that chlorpromazine
exerts its effect
by blocking the
dopamine receptors,
but not based on
etiological rationale.
In the past decade or so,
psychiatric genetics
have finally
identified separate
genetic risk factors
for schizophrenia.
This encouraged us to
develop our research
utilizing modern
neuroscience approaches with
the goal of finding
another therapeutic target
via understanding risk genes
associated with
molecular pathways.
1:06
In this regard, DISC1 is one of
the promising risk gene for
major mental conditions.
Today, I will first
talk about how DISC1
is identified as a risk gene
for major mental disorders.
Then I will discuss
potential therapeutic
strategies based
on the structure and the
motif of DISC1 protein.
Next, I will present several
DISC1-associated pathways
as potential drug targets.
Finally, I'll discuss the
molecular complexities of
DISC1 and propose how we
could address this matter.
Let's start with the
discovery of the disrupted in
