From genes to psychoses and back: the role of the 5HT2alpha-receptor and prepulse inhibition in schizophrenia

Decomposition of schizophrenia into neurobiological vulnerability traits is necessary to understand the complex genetic underpinnings of this phenomenologically defined disorder. This issue is discussed with a focus on prepulse inhibition (PPI) as a neurobiological phenotype and the 5HT2a-receptor as a candidate gene. A series of recent studies illuminates that PPI and 5HT2a-receptors present as vulnerability markers for schizophrenia; a functional sequence variant in the 5HT2a-gene is contributing to this relationship and might consequently contribute to the genetic predisposition to schizophrenia with a very small risk increase