Background And Hypothesis: Schizophrenia is characterized by a complex interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors converging on prominent signaling pathways that orchestrate brain development. The Akt/GSK3β/mTORC1 pathway has long been recognized as a point of convergence and etiological mechanism, but despite evidence suggesting its hypofunction, it is still not clear if this is already established during the first episode of psychosis (FEP).
Study Design: Here, we performed a systematic phosphorylation analysis of Akt, GSK3β, and S6, a mTORC1 downstream target, in fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells from drug-naive FEP patients and control subjects.