Because psychosis and cognitive decline are among the most common debilitating afflictions of humans, the search for new treatments is very important and timely.

Researchers at the NIH have found that genetic variations on the PIK3CD gene are associated with schizophrenia in Caucasian and African American families and can affect normal human cognition functions such as memory, IQ and executive cognition. The inventors have shown that an inhibitor of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase p110 delta (PIK3CD) enzyme, which is encoded by the PIK3CD gene, significantly improves a migratory response that is critically impaired in schizophrenic patients. This drug, as well as other PIK3CD inhibitors, could provide effective treatments of psychosis and cognitive decline. 0