LSUHSC’S NICHOLS TO USE LSD AND FRUIT
FLIES TO IDENTIFY NOVEL GENES FOR PSYCHOSIS AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
With $1.4 Million Grant from NIH
New Orleans, LA
– Charles Nichols, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health
Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded a grant in the amount of $1.4
million over four years by the National Institutes of Health’s National
Institute of Mental Health to find and characterize novel genes involved in
psychosis and schizophrenia, using novel research methods.
Dr. Nichols’ approach is innovative,
combining discovery studies with functional and behavioral studies in two
different models to determine how mental disorders like psychosis and
schizophrenia develop. By studying both a new rodent model of psychosis that he
is co-developing, which involves treating rats
with the powerful hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamid (LSD),
and the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, analysis of gene function relative to whole
animal behavior can be accomplished more rapidly than with traditional rodent
models alone.
“We believe that changes in gene
function, influenced by abnormal activity in specific regions of the brain
regulated by the neurotransmitter serotonin, contribute to neuropsychiatric
disorders. The effects of LSD can be very similar to aspects of psychosis in
people, but no one really understands how LSD works other than it changes how
serotonin functions in the brain,” notes Dr. Nichols.
In preliminary studies, Dr. Nichols has
shown that, remarkably, both serotonin and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD
influence many complex behaviors in the fly directly relevant to those that are
abnormal in humans with psychosis and schizophrenia, including aggression,
learning and memory, social interaction, and sensory perception.
The LSUHSC research team will probe specific regions of rat brains that
correspond to key cognitive centers of the human brain using advanced genomic
and proteomic methods to identify abnormally functioning genes and proteins.
Additional studies will translate these results to the fruit fly, where the
functional role of both the native and mutant forms of the fly version of these
genes and proteins will be examined in behaviors relevant to psychosis. Genes
and proteins that are abnormally turned on or off by LSD in the rat brain, and
found to participate in causing relevant
behaviors in the fruit fly, may represent novel therapeutic targets for
neuropsychiatric disorders.
Schizophrenia is a debilitating
neuropsychiatric disorder that affects about one out of every 100 Americans, and
mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for
ages 15-44. Major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion
annually in lost earnings alone, according to a 2008 study funded by the
National Institute of Mental Health. The World Health Organization has
identified schizophrenia as one of the ten most debilitating diseases affecting
human beings. While
treatments are improving, there are still people who do not respond or only
partially respond.
“Our results may lead to new avenues for therapeutics to treat such devastating diseases as schizophrenia and psychosis,” says Dr. Nichols.
___________________________________________________________________________
# # #
Disclaimer Contact Us Privacy Statement
Copyright 2009 LSU Health Sciences Center