Recent research has shown that the cascade of signals in the proinflammatory immune response tend to cause the amino acid tryptophan to break down into kynurenic acid rather than serotonin, a brain chemical that influences mood. (discovermagazine.com)
People with schizophrenia have higher than normal levels of kynurenic acid in their brains. (sciencedaily.com)
On performing a genome - wide association study (GWAS), they found that a genetic variant of the SNX7 gene was associated with both the levels of a protein in the CSF, known as kynurenic acid, and the disease symptoms. (sciencedaily.com)