However, it remains unknown whether deletion of dysbindin-1 impacts functions of the amygdala, a brain region that is critical for emotional processing, which is disrupted in patients with schizophrenia.
These data suggest that deletion of dysbindin-1A influences behaviours related to schizophrenia and anxiety more robustly in adolescence than in adulthood and that dysbindin-1A influences stress-related responses in a sex-dependent manner.
It has been shown that dystrobrevin-binding protein 1 gene that encodes the protein dysbindin-1 is associated with risk for cognitive deficits, and studies have shown decreases in glutamate and correlated decreases in dysbindin-1 protein in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus of post-mortem tissue from schizophrenia patients.
This genetic interaction between D3 and Dys suggests the D2/D3 imbalance in the PFC as a target for patient stratification and procognitive treatments in schizophrenia.
Similar to homeostatic plasticity, proteasome perturbation enhances presynaptic Ca<sup>2+</sup> influx, readily-releasable vesicle pool size, and does not potentiate release after loss of specific homeostatic plasticity genes, including the schizophrenia-susceptibility gene dysbindin.
DTNBP1 encodes dysbindin protein, which is localized to synaptic sites and is reduced in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of patients with schizophrenia, indicating a potential role in schizophrenia etiology.
Dysbindin-1b expression was 26% higher in schizophrenia subjects (p = 0.01) and correlated inversely with basilar dendrite length (r = -0.31, p = 0.048) and the number of spines per basilar dendrite (r = -0.31, p = 0.048), but not with dendritic spine density (r = -0.16, p = 0.32).
Dysbindin-1 is enriched in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, while postmortem brain studies of individuals with schizophrenia show decreased levels of dysbindin-1 mRNA and protein in these brain regions.
These findings in dys-1A<sup>-/-</sup> provide the first evidence for differential functional roles for dysbindin-1A vs dysbindin-1C isoforms among phenotypes relevant to the pathobiology of schizophrenia.
Together, results indicate an important role of dysbindin-1 in neuronal activity induced SREBP1 and ARC, which could be related to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
Our findings highlight brain region- and cell type-specific functions of DTNBP1 in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and underscore BDNF restoration as a potential therapeutic strategy for schizophrenia.
Therefore, we hypothesized that dysbindin-1B might impair the cognitive function of schizophrenia patients by co-aggregating with BLOC-1 subunits and disturbing the function of BLOC-1.
The Proteome of BLOC-1 Genetic Defects Identifies the Arp2/3 Actin Polymerization Complex to Function Downstream of the Schizophrenia Susceptibility Factor Dysbindin at the Synapse.
DTNBP1 promoter DNA methylation may become a key element in a panel of biomarkers for diagnosis, prevention, or therapy in SCZ and at risk individuals pending confirmatory studies with larger sample sizes to attain a higher degree of significance.
Indeed, the DLPFC of schizophrenia cases exhibit increased PSD-95 and erbB4 and decreased receptor-type tyrosine-protein phosphatase-α (RPTPα) and dysbindin-1, each of which reduces Src activity via protein interaction with Src.
Dysbindin is a schizophrenia susceptibility factor and subunit of the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1 (BLOC-1) required for lysosome-related organelle biogenesis, and in neurons, synaptic vesicle assembly, neurotransmission, and plasticity.