Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) protein disturbs neural function in multiple disease-risk pathways

Although the genetic contribution is under debate, biological studies in multiple mouse models have suggested that the Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) protein may contribute to susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. In the present study, we took the advantages of the Drosophila model to dissect the molecular pathways that can be affected by DISC1 in the context of pathology-related phenotypes. We found that three pathways that include the homologs of Drosophila Dys, Trio, and Shot were downregulated by introducing a C-terminal truncated mutant DISC1. Consistently, these three molecules were downregulated in the induced pluripotent stem cell-derived forebrain neurons from the subjects carrying a frameshift deletion in DISC1 C-terminus. Importantly, the three pathways were underscored in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders in bioinformatics analysis. Taken together, our findings are in line with the polygenic theory of psychiatric disorders.