Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup. This is a common mnemonic for memorizing the order of taxonomy: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. It is also just one of the many examples of how we put things into boxes to try to organize the chaos that surrounds us.
We like it when things are black and white, with very minimal gray area. But what happens when we can’t contain something inside its box? This seems to be an issue when it comes to mental illness, i.e. how we define certain disorders and how do they differ from one another, etc. Mental illness is a rather broad topic, spanning across countless disorders and so I would like to shed some light on one in particular: schizophrenia.
What is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is considered to be a mental illness as mentioned previously, however it is also a neurological developmental disorder. Meaning that it begins sometime during our development, often during childhood.
What Causes It?
The cause of Schizophrenia is not exactly known and it appears that multiple factors can come into play, such as environment and genetics. That being said, there is one pathway in the brain that may be a key player in this disorder, known as the Wnt signaling pathway. The Wnt pathway consists of three different “routes” so to speak. The one implicated in schizophrenia involves an important protein known as β-catenin. When the pathway is shut off, β-catenin is trapped in a destruction complex, which is just structure made up of many other proteins (GSK3β, Axin, Apc, and CK1a). This leads to an inhibition of transcription factors, which means that some genes are not expressed.
For more info on this pathway check out this video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oweNT288BXo
What Does β-catenin Have To Do With Schizophrenia?
Individuals with schizophrenia tend to have an increase in GSK3β activation, which results in β-catenin being trapped in the destruction complex and is unable to express certain genes. This is caused by an over-activation of D2 receptors in the brain due to the release of dopamine (DA). When these receptors are activated, they shut off a protein known as AKT. AKT’s job is to keep GSK3β in check, but if it’s turned off then GSK3β is over-activated and β-catenin remains trapped.
Now that I have given a little background on schizophrenia, I would like to go back to the idea that need everything needs a “box”. Symptoms of schizophrenia often overlap with other disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. Also, people express symptoms in different ways and at various degrees, creating a kind of spectrum. This causes a lot of gray areas and so often times people are misdiagnosed. This is true for many other mental illnesses as well and so it begs the question of can we really be so cut and dry when diagnosing or do we need to allow for some fluidity? Do we need to spend more time helping people with their symptoms and less on putting them in a box?
Featured Photo Credit: Abhijit Bhaduri (flickr.com)
A Glimpse Into Schizophrenia
