EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Methods and Compositions for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Schizophrenia

SUMMARY:  Prof. Linda Brzustowicz, Professor of Genetics at Rutgers University, has identified a novel isoform of the protein CAPON (recently renamed NOS1AP), termed CAPON-S, that was found to be overexpressed in the brain tissue of neuropsychiatric patients.  CAPON-S can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify patients with an increased risk for schizophrenia as well as a drug discovery tool to find new therapeutic agents for the treatment of schizophrenia.  Siuta Consulting has been retained by Rutgers to find partners for this technology.

BACKGROUND:  Schizophrenia is a serious neuropsychiatric illness that is estimated to affect approximately 1% of the general population.  The disease is chronic, characterized by episodes of worsening symptoms with active psychosis, followed by periods of relative recovery marked by significant residual impairment.  Current treatment is purely symptomatic, with no real cure.  A genetic component for schizophrenia has long been suggested and family, twin, and adoption studies have shown a high degree of heritability.  Therefore, identification of genes associated neuropsychiatric disorders would greatly facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of these illnesses.

TECHNOLOGY:  Screening of a human fetal brain cDNA library has identified a new isoform of CAPON, CAPON-S, that consists of the terminal two exons of the gene, and verified the expression of the predicted corresponding protein in human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.  The expression levels of both the ten-exon CAPON transcript and this new isoform in 105 postmortem brain samples (35 with schizophrenia, 35 with bipolar disorder, and 35 psychiatrically normal controls) revealed significantly (p<0.005) increased expression of the new isoform in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients.  Furthermore, this increased expression was significantly associated (p<0.05) with genotype at three single-nucleotide polymorphisms previously identified as being in linkage disequilibrium with schizophrenia.

PUBLICATIONS:  B. Xu, N. Wratten, E. I. Charych, S. G. Buyske, B. L. Firestein and L. M. Brzustowicz, Increased Expression in Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of CAPON in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, PLoS Medicine 2 (10), 999-1007 (2005).

PATENT STATUS:  PCT Patent Application Number WO2006081350 entitled “Methods and Compositions for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Schizophrenia” that covers the use of CAPON related proteins as a diagnostic tool as well as a drug discovery tool was filed on January 26, 2006 and published on August 3, 2006.

LICENSE TERMS:  The technology is available for license as a diagnostic and/or therapeutic target.