Evaluation of neuropeptides and amino acids to elucidate the neurobiology of psychiatric diseases

• Grant number: 10/00900-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Toxicological Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Regina Helena Costa Queiroz
• Grantee: Marina Salviato Balbão Santiago Fonseca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug used in treating schizophrenia. Adverse effects related to its use, are obesity, hyperlipidemia, type II diabetes mellitus and hypertension, may result in development of metabolic syndrome. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effect of prolonged use of olanzapine in schizophrenic patients for the parameters: total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, cortisol, homocysteine, C-reactive protein (CRP ), urea, creatinine, uric acid, bilirubin (total, direct and indirect), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGPT), C-reactive protein (CRP), prothrombin time (PT), thromboplastin time activated partial (aPTT) and coagulation factors VII and XII, which are relevant as they represent important markers of changes related to metabolic disorders or atherosclerotic risk. The evaluation of endogenous hormones linked to appetite such as leptin, ghrelin and neuropeptides NPY and PYY are fundamental for establishing a possible mechanism of action for weight gain caused by olanzapine. Certain amino acids are important indicators of metabolic disorders or physiological processes, such as glutamate, glycine and serine that are closely related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and arginine, a precursor of nitric oxide modulates the activity as dopamine neuronal systems, and GABA glutamate, all related to schizophrenia. Because of the importance of these substances, this study has also designed to determine the levels of arginine, aspartate, glycine, glutamate, lysine, serine groups of schizophrenic subjects with antipsychotics Clozapine and Olanzapine and comparing them to a group of individuals antipsychotic treatment without depression, a group of individuals with bipolar disorder and antipsychotic untreated control group, to establish a correlation established between the levels of these amino acids and schizophrenia. The parametric approach and mixed effect linear model will be used to evaluate the data where the answers of the same subject are grouped and the assumption of independence between observations in the same group is not appropriate. The mean analysis (ANOVA) and analysis of variance between groups (Tukey-Kramer) will be used for comparison between groups, as the dosage of amino acids. It will set a significance level of 5% (p <0.05).

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FONSECA, Marina Salviato Balbão Santiago. Evaluation of neuropeptides and amino acids to elucidate the neurobiology of psychiatric diseases. 2012. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.