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Edited on Mon May-31-10 12:45 PM by mzmolly
But as you suggest, the hope is that the discovery will lead to new therapies for mental illness, that target the immune system. http://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674%2810%2900374-0#IntroductionThe above experiments strongly support the hypothesis that the excessive pathological grooming behavior observed in Hoxb8 mutant mice originates from defective microglia, thus directly connecting hematopoietic function to mouse behavior. The extensive role of microglia, as the brain's monitor and responder of immune activity, in the normal function of our brain is becoming increasingly apparent. As examples, immunological dysfunctions have been widely linked to many psychiatric disorders including OCD, major depression, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease (Ashwood et al., 2006,da Rocha et al., 2008,Kronfol and Remick, 2000,Lang et al., 2007,Leonard and Myint, 2009,Strous and Shoenfeld, 2006). In addition, results from genome-wide association studies suggest that genes whose dysfunction have been implicated in immune dysfunction and/or signaling contribute to increased susceptibility to the above mentioned mental disorders (Hounie et al., 2008,Purcell et al., 2009,Shi et al., 2009,Stefansson et al., 2009).:hi: |
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