Parasitic brain infection, endocannabinoids, and schizophrenia
Section snippets
1. Introduction
Schizophrenia is a chronic debilitating condition affecting approximately 1% of the population [1]. It is characterized by disorganized thoughts, hallucinations, and delusions (positive form), and apathy and avolution (negative form). Similar symptoms result from cannabis use, which has often been associated with psychosis (Greek meaning diseased soul), and specifically schizophrenia [2] However, it is only in recent times that tools have become available to properly, scientifically evaluate
2. Hypothesis
There are a number of disparate observations regarding schizophrenia that may be integrated into a cohesive model based on immune imbalance. Firstly, there is a strong negative correlation between rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia [26], yet, a number of similarities between these diseases have been indicated [27]. Secondly, rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a Th1/17 pro-inflammatory cytokine bias [28]. The negative correlation between arthritis and schizophrenia implies that
3. Discussion
For decades marijuana consumption has remained the center of controversy. The discovery of the endocannabinoid system now provides a scientific foundation for examining this topic. A possible link between cannabis consumption and schizophrenia continues to fuel the controversy. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in an effort to explain schizophrenia. Proposals regarding genetic and environmental factors, as well as age remain inconclusive. This paper presents a novel hypothesis that
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank Dr. Mitch Earleywine for critically reading the manuscript.
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Identification of potential biomarkers and their correlation with immune infiltration cells in schizophrenia using combinative bioinformatics strategy
2022, Psychiatry ResearchCitation Excerpt :Abdolmaleky et al. (2019) used whole-genome expression microarrays and DNA methylation profiling of SCZ brain samples found that BMP signaling, glutamate signaling and TGFβ signaling, astrocyte and cerebral cortex development are significantly coordinately upregulated in SCZ, and lateralized expression and DNA Methylation of TGFB2 are absent in SCZ. For many years, that there has been a suggested link between schizophrenia and some pathogens, and the immune imbalance induced by brain-infection might be a possible cause for SCZ (Melamede, 2009). The interaction between innate and adaptive immune responses plays a key role in the recognition and control of B.pertussis infections, and B cells and CD4 T cells were the main effector cells for providing protection (Kapil and Merkel, 2019).
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Psychosis may be associated with toxoplasmosis
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