It had been suspected that the illness was an autoimmune disorder like multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s or rheumatoid arthritis where the immune system misfires and attacks the body.The international team led by Dr Jennie Pouget from the University of Toronto and Dr Jo Knight from Lancaster University have found strong evidence that schizophrenia is different.
They tested the idea that genetic variants influencing immune function contribute to the disease but they found that the pattern in schizophrenia is not the same as in classic autoimmune disorders.
Among 108 regions of the genome previously linked to the schizophrenia, they found only six which act on both the immune system and the brain.
Read more at Lancaster University
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