Mechanisms of Schizophrenia: Insights to Unlock the Brain Puzzle and Generate Effective Antipsychotic Drugs
A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 2005
Special Issue Editor
Interests: genes; brain; mouse models of schizophrenia; behavior, pharmacology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder affecting ~1% of the population, but accounting for 1 in 4 hospital beds in psychiatric clinics. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, cognitive symptoms such as deficits in working memory, attention, and cognitive flexibility, and negative symptoms such as a lack of motivation. Although antipsychotic drugs (APDs) have been an essential part of psychiatric practice for ~70 years, cognitive and negative symptoms hardly respond to currently available antipsychotic therapy, and therefore represent the main targets of APD research.
Most APDs primarily act by blocking dopamine D2 receptors. Hence, one way to improve the development of APDs is to understand the mechanism of action of the D2R on multiple levels, including gene expression, protein-to-protein interactions, intracellular signaling, synaptic plasticity, neural circuits, and behavioral endophenotypes. It should also be recognized that schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder by origin; hence, it could be prevented if diagnosed at its early stage. Furthermore, the complexity of its psychopathological mechanisms is associated with other molecular–cellular impairments, e.g., hypofunction of the glutamatergic system, altered serotonergic neurotransmission, and bioenergy. Therefore, our Special Issue aims to advance the field of APD development, which will benefit psychiatric neuroscience to unlock this complex brain puzzle.
Dr. Tatiana V. Lipina
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Dr. Tatiana V. Lipina
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- animal models of schizophrenia
- antipsychotic drugs
- brain
- genes
- D2R
- neurodevelopment
- neurotransmission
- synaptic plasticity
- neural circuits
- genomics
- proteomics
- intracellular signalling
- bioenergetics
- prevention
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