A surplus of an amino acid named methionine, which is common in cheese, meat, and beans, may deliver new signs to the fetal brain growth that can later manifest in schizophrenia. These observations propose that aiming the effects of this amino acid may lead to novel antipsychotic drugs. The study also delivers thorough evidence on the neural developmental mechanisms of the methionine effect, which leads to changes in the expression of several genes important to healthy brain growth and, in particular, to one linked to schizophrenia in humans.
Researchers based their approach on studies from the 1960s and 1970s in which schizophrenic patients injected with methionine experienced worsened symptoms. Knowing that schizophrenia is a developmental disorder, researchers hypothesized that administering three times the normal daily input of methionine to pregnant mice may produce pups that have…
