Evaluate the nitric oxide/GMPc/glutamate pathway in rat brain after social isolation from weaning

• Grant number: 18/06702-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: October 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Carla Celotto
• Grantee: Laísa Durigan
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde de Barretos Dr Paulo Prata (FACISB). Barretos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a disease with high prevalence in the population, triggered by biopsychosocial factors, associated with biological factors - physiological and genetic. The symptoms are subdivided into positive, negative and cognitive; and the traditional antipsychotic drugs, which have the dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways as target, have demonstrated inefficiency in relief the last two subtypes of symptoms. Studies show that increased activation of the glutamatergic ionotropic receptors NMDA influence the symptoms of schizophrenia as they activate NO/cGMP/PKC signaling pathway. Pharmacological and non pharmacological models have been employed in the study of the changes induced by schizophrenia. In this disease, some studies are quite different in relation to the role of the NO, so the present study proposes the use of a physiological model to evaluate the expression and activity of the NOS in the brain areas involved. AIM: Evaluate the molecular changes induced by emotional stress (social isolation from weaning) applied in rats during the entire period of brain development, with emphasis on signaling pathway involving nitric oxide. MATERIAL AND METHODS: use of male Wistar rats, with 21 days of age. The animals are divided into "grouped" and "isolated" for 10 weeks after weaning, and then subjected to the perfusion for brain removal. Brain sections with the areas of interest will be used for immunohistochemistry experiments. Positive cells for iNOS, nNOS and eNOS will be quantified and also the indirect determination of nitric oxide (NO) of the tissue.