PI3Kdelta turns schizophrenic

A team of NIH researchers has linked phosphoinositide 3-kinase-d to neuregulin signaling and shown that inhibiting the kinase improved behavior in rodent models of schizophrenia.¹ The findings could offer a way to target the neuregulin pathway, which has been associated with schizophrenia for more than a decade but has eluded drug discovery efforts because of a lack of validated targets.

Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) and its receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor 4 (EGFR4; HER4; ErbB4), are expressed in regions of the developing brain. The molecules mediate the proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells and drive neuronal migration, axon outgrowth and synapse formation.²...