An international study led by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, in collaboration with researchers from the Neuropsychopharmacology Group at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and researchers from the CIBER of Mental Health (CIBERSAM), and published in Nature Communications , may facilitate the creation of new personalized treatments for people diagnosed with schizophrenia. These are patients who suffer from various types of symptoms, such as delusions, hallucinations, cognitive deficits, memory or language impairment, and depressive symptoms. Current treatments, largely targeting a specific therapeutic target, the type 2A serotonin receptor, do not allow for selective action on the symptoms experienced by the patient, causing side effects, and metabolic or motor issues, among others, that lead to treatment abandonment.
In this context, the study has identified the role of certain proteins, the G proteins, which play a vital role in modulating cell responses in schizophrenia. Specifically, it was shown that two types of these proteins allow for the modulation of the main symptoms of this disorder. Dr.
Jana Selent, one of the principal authors of the study and coordinator of the Drug Discovery Group based on G protein-coupled receptors at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, points out that "these proteins are coupled to the same receptor, but they do not act in the same way, causing diverse reactions in the cells," which "provides us with.
