Gene targets related to phospholipid and fatty acid metabolism in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders: an update

Phospholipids make up about 60 % of the brain's dry weight and play key roles in many brain signal tranduction mechanisms. A recent review(1) identified the increasing evidence that abnormal phospholipid and related fatty acid metabolism may contribute to illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This current paper reviews the main pathways of phospholipid metabolism, emphasizing the role of phospholipases of the A2 in signal tranduction processes. It also updates the chromosomal locations of regions likely to be involved in these disorders, and relates these to the known locations of genes directly or indirectly involved in phospholipid and fatty acid metabolism. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.