Emerging role of CaMKII in neuropsychiatric disease

•Recent evidence for CaMKII dysregulation in psychiatric diseases is reviewed.•Changes in postsynaptic structure and function appear to be central to multiple diseases.•Altered regulation of the CaMKIIα gene promoter may be a common mechanism among diseases.•CaMKII dysregulation in diverse brain regions may account for myriad disorders.

Although it has been known for decades that hippocampal calcium/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) plays an essential role in learning and memory consolidation, the roles of CaMKII in other brain regions are only recently being explored in depth. A series of recent studies suggest that CaMKII dysfunction throughout the brain may underlie myriad neuropsychiatric disorders, including drug addiction, schizophrenia, depression, epilepsy, and multiple neurodevelopmental disorders, perhaps through maladaptations in glutamate signaling and neuroplasticity. I review here the structure, function, subcellular localization, and expression patterns of CaMKII isoforms, as well as recent advances demonstrating that disturbances in these properties may contribute to psychiatric disorders.