Summary: Researchers report increased levels of methionine during pregnancy can alter the expression of genes linked to schizophrenia in offspring.

Source: UC Irvine.

Excess of methionine during pregnancy alters prenatal brain development related to the psychiatric disease.

An abundance of an amino acid called methionine, which is common in meat, cheese and beans, may provide new clues to the fetal brain development that can manifest in schizophrenia, University of California, Irvine pharmacology researchers report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The findings point to the role methionine overload can play during pregnancy and suggest that targeting the effects of this amino acid may lead to new antipsychotic drugs.

The UCI study also provides detailed information on the neural developmental mechanisms of the methionine effect, which results in changes in the expression of several genes important to healthy brain growth and, in particular, to one linked to…