Schizophrenia brain composition

The interest in neuronal nAChRs has increased in the past few years and a great number of papers were published on the establishment of the physiology of nAChRs including the determination of type, composition, and number of nAChRs present in different tissues, as well as on their pharmacological properties. The need to understand the functional implications of nAChRs in the human brain arises from several known facts, namelly, the reduced number of nAChRs seen in both Alzheimer s and Parkinson s diseases, the importance of cholinergic defects in particular forms of human epilepsy and the decreased number of hippocampal nicotinic receptors seen in postmorten brain tissue of schizophrenia patients. The presence of nAChRs in lung carcinoma cells and the potential role of nicotine in learning and memory was also reported. 

It has been long known that lipid abnormalities are associated with psychosis [5]. For example, abnormal GPL metabolism or altered brain membrane lipid composition is associated with the development of schizophrenia [100], Importantly, the results from an intervention study with long-chain n-3 fatty acids clearly indicate the importance of lipids in the progression of psychosis since the study demonstrated that treatment with long-chain n-3 fatty acids could reduce the risk of progression to psychotic disorder [101]. 

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