Physiological function and clinical application of a new psychosis-related molecule

In the present study, we investigated physiological function and clinical application of Shati/Nat8l. Our findings revealed that Shati/Nat8l in the dorsal striatum associated with both sociability and motivation by the indirect regulation of the serotonergic neuronal system. Alternatively, Shati/Nat8l in the nucleus accumbens served in emotion via the mGluR3-mediated inhibition of the dopaminergic neuronal system. Thus, Shati/Nat8l in the brain plays an important role in mental health. Moreover, our observations in human study suggested that the analysis of methylation levels on Shati/Nat8l promoter region in genomic DNA derived from peripheral blood was useful to make a diagnosis of mental disease.