Researchers find biological way to diagnose schizophrenia

Israeli researchers have discovered a biological way to diagnose schizophrenia that affects about 1 percent of the world's population, local Ha'aretz daily reported on Tuesday.

The Tel Aviv University researchers managed to extract nerve cells from the nose that are responsible for the sense of smell and examined them via gene mapping.

The mental illness, which manifests in delusions, cognitive disruption, hallucinations and speech impairments, is currently diagnosed by subjective opinions of psychiatrists and questionnaires which evaluate patients' state of mind.

The study, which was conducted in cooperation with the John Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore of the United States, included 25 schizophrenic patients and 25 healthy peoples.

In the extracted cells, scientists have tested the biological " controls" which determine the genetic expressions in cells. Those cells have helped track in the past the development of different diseases including diabetes and cancer.

The researchers then found three specific genetic controls related to schizophrenia, which were found in the 25 patients but not in the healthy subjects.

"We believe that these nerve cells are a window to understanding the activity of nerve cells in the brain," Noam Shomron, a researcher at Tel Aviv University and head of the study, told the Ha'aretz.

The findings were recently published in the Neurobiology of Diseases and will be presented at the International Congress on Schizophrenic research in Orlando, the United States on Tuesday.

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