Schizophrenia is a severe, heritable, and refractory psychiatric disorder. Several studies have shown that the disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene is closely associated with schizophrenia by its role in neuronal morphology, synaptic function, brain development, and dopamine homeostasis etc. This study intended to investigate the expression levels of DISC1 gene in schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, and the expression variation of DISC1 gene before and after antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia patients. In this study, we compared DISC1 expression levels in blood of 48 healthy controls, and 32 schizophrenia patients before and after 12 weeks of antipsychotic treatment using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. The expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients before antipsychotic treatment were higher than those in healthy controls (P < 0.01); whereas after antipsychotic treatment, the expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients still remained increased (P < 0.01). Our study provided further support for the involvement of DISC1 in the development of schizophrenia.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症患者外周血DISC1基因表达的改变

精神分裂症是一种严重，可遗传和难治的精神病。几项研究表明，精神分裂症1（DISC1）基因的破坏与其在神经元形态，突触功能，大脑发育和多巴胺稳态等方面的作用密切相关。该研究旨在研究DISC1基因在精神分裂症中的表达水平。与健康对照相比，精神分裂症患者抗精神病药物治疗前后DISC1基因的表达变化。在这项研究中，我们使用实时定量PCR（RT-qPCR）分析了抗精神病药物治疗12周前后48位健康对照和32位精神分裂症患者血液中DISC1的表达水平。抗精神病药物治疗前精神分裂症患者外周血单个核细胞中DISC1基因的表达水平高于健康对照组（P <0.01）；抗精神病药物治疗后，精神分裂症患者外周血单个核细胞中DISC1基因的表达水平仍保持升高（P <0.01）。我们的研究为DISC1参与精神分裂症的发展提供了进一步的支持。