Experimental cancer med reverses schizophrenia in mice

Scientists have revealed that an experimental anticancer compound appears to have reversed behaviors associated with schizophrenia in mice.

According to Johns Hopkins researchers, the drug was able to restore some lost brain cell function in adolescent mice with a rodent version of the devastating mental illness.

The drug, which is of a class of compounds known as PAK inhibitors, was able to partially restore disabled neurons so they could connect to other nerve cells.

The scientists found that compound, called FRAX486, appears to halt an out-of-control biological "pruning" process in the schizophrenic brain during which important neural connections are unnecessarily destroyed.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.