Auxiliary role of D5 dopamine receptor as a marker in paranoid schizophrenia patients

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia, commonly develops in adolescents and young adults and Paranoid is the most common type. Newly progress in molecular biology and imaging techniques has enabled new insight into schizophrenia research. Recent research reveals the key roles of D3, D4 and D5 dopamine receptor in presenting types of schizophrenia, particularly the paranoid. The purpose of this study was to the evaluation of D5 along with D3 dopamine receptor expression in schizophrenia patients.

METHOD: 96 venous blood from 51 drug-free, 15 naive and 30 healthy were prepared and their expression level of mRNA for D3 and D5 dopamine receptor were investigated based on β-actin expression as housekeeping gene.

RESULTS: D3 expressed about 33.3%, 73.3% and 27.4% in healthy, naive and drug-free patients respectively, but D5 just expressed in 86.6% of healthy samples and none of the patients were expressed D5.

CONCLUSION: Expression frequency of D3 and D5 dopamine receptor reveals significant differences between naïve and drug-free patient against healthy individuals. D3 and D5, both have the possible potential for almost more accurate diagnosis usage, and the severity of the disease could be related to the D5 dopamine receptor.