The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were loaded into the software DAVID and ToppGene to identify enriched gene pathways and networks. The top enriched GO terms for the genes that showed an increase in expression in the SZ neurons were apoptosis/programmed cell death and immune response, while the top GO terms for the genes that decreased in expression in the SZ neurons were cell cycle, microtubule organizing center organization and glutamate metabolic process (Fig. 1c). From pathway analysis by ToppGene, the top canonical pathways for all DEGs are involved in the MAPK signaling cascade (Fig. 1d), such as the p38 MAPK and Toll-like receptor pathways. This finding is consistent with a previous genome-wide transcriptome analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC's) from 22q11DS SZ patients [69], in which ERK/MAPK signaling was also identified as one of the top canonical pathways disrupted in patients. In our data, significantly elevated expression was observed for several MAPK encoding genes (MAP3K2, MAP3K7 and MAP3K6) and related factors (JUN, PRKCD, HOMER3 and MYH9). In addition, expression levels of upstream regulators for the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, PIK3C2A
