Schizophrenia: do the genetics and neurobiology of neuregulin provide a pathogenesis model?

The sequencing of the human genome and an emerging dense map of markers across the human genome have spawned new approaches to search for risk genes for human diseases with complex genetics. These approaches are particularly relevant to the search for risk genes for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A gene called neuregulin 1 has been reported to be a risk gene for schizophrenia. This article reviews aspects of the genetics, cellular neurobiology, and biochemistry of neuregulin 1 and attempts to integrate several observations from disparate fields into a model for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. The model outlines experimental approaches that may, in the future, shed more light on its validity.