Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Genetics and Targeted Therapy

Dear Colleagues,

Neuropsychiatric disorders are a set of highly debilitating medical conditions that are etiologically complex and difficult to treat. Half of the global population will suffer from a neuropsychiatric condition at some point in their lifetime, making novel therapeutic development an exigent clinical priority. However, rational therapeutic design critically depends on scientific discoveries that provide actionable biological insights into the pathophysiology of disease. This requires an improved understanding of how gene × environment interactions confer neural circuit dysfunction, which is a unifying characteristic that all neuropsychiatric conditions share. Currently, additional evidence is needed to establish the following: (1) the functional impact of disease-related gene mutations on the proteins they encode; (2) how this contributes mechanistically to aberrant changes in the efficacy of synaptic transmission and plasticity; (3) whether this promotes clinically significant deviations in cognition, perception, emotion, and behavior; and (4) the role of environmental factors in potentiating (or mitigating) disease risk.

Our goal is to publish a multidisciplinary set of studies that reveal physiological processes through which genetic and/or environmental factors confer increased risk for neuropsychiatric conditions. This may include patient-derived genetic variants or site-specific mutations that are designed to test specific mechanistic hypotheses of cellular function. We also welcome submissions from subject areas including, but not limited to, the following: molecular mechanisms of synapse development and circuit assembly; transcriptional and epigenetic signatures of disease risk and/or therapeutic response; cell-type-specific neural circuit function in mood-related behavior; convergent pathways underlying neuropsychiatric comorbidities; notable preclinical model developments that broadly facilitate the study of neuropsychiatric phenotypes.

Contributions in the form of research articles, reviews, and commentaries are welcome.

Dr. Lace Riggs
Guest Editor

Dr. Xin Fu
Assistant 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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Genes 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 2600 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.