PMID- 17166669
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20070718
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 0306-9877 (Print)
IS  - 0306-9877 (Linking)
VI  - 69
IP  - 1
DP  - 2007
TI  - Therapeutic possibilities of cysteamine in the treatment of schizophrenia.
PG  - 199-202
AB  - Schizophrenia has complicated pathogeneses that is not able to be explained by 
      any one supposed hypothesis, although alterations in dopamine neurotransmission 
      have been widely accepted as the most plausible mechanism. A transition from 
      traditional typical antipsychotics to contemporary atypical antipsychotics which 
      have significantly improved tolerability and enhanced specific efficacy has been 
      also made based on this dopamine hypothesis. Cysteamine is a natural product of 
      mammalian cells and found to be useful pharmacological alternative. A number of 
      evidence suggests that cysteamine may control directly or indirectly dopamine 
      neurotransmission in nucleus accumbens and other schizophrenia-related brain 
      regions. Systemic cysteamine injection mitigated the apomorphine-induced 
      stereotypy as well as decreasing motor stimulant effects of amphetamine, which 
      favor cysteamine over animal models of schizophrenia relative to hyperactivity of 
      dopaminergic pathway. In addition, cysteamine showed neuroprotective effects by 
      way of enhancing central and serum brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that 
      has been proved to be altered in patients with schizophrenia. Antipsychotic drugs 
      exert their effect partly by modifying the synthesis and distribution of BDNF in 
      selected brain region. Cysteamine was effective to reverse a disruption in 
      prepulse inhibition, an endophenotypic marker of schizophrenia. Cysteamine can 
      also stimulate the release of cortical dopamine, which is interesting in that 
      decreased dopaminergic function in the cerebral cortex has been repeatedly 
      demonstrated in patients with schizophrenia and associated with prominent 
      depressive and negative symptoms. Cysteamine can also increase an important 
      antioxidant, glutathione. Finally, cysteamine treatment was found to decrease 
      weight gain, cataleptic behavior, and serum prolactin levels, which are the major 
      beneficial properties of contemporary atypical antipsychotics. Hence, further 
      explorations of therapeutic implication of cysteamine for schizophrenia in 
      preclinical studies should be warranted in future.
FAU - Pae, Chi-Un
AU  - Pae CU
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, Kangnam St. Mary' Hospital, The Catholic University of 
      Korea, College of Medicine, 505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-701, South 
      Korea. pae@catholic.ac.kr
FAU - Lee, Chul
AU  - Lee C
FAU - Paik, In-Ho
AU  - Paik IH
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20061212
PL  - United States
TA  - Med Hypotheses
JT  - Medical hypotheses
JID - 7505668
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 5UX2SD1KE2 (Cysteamine)
RN  - VTD58H1Z2X (Dopamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Brain/drug effects/*metabolism
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/metabolism
MH  - Cysteamine/*administration & dosage
MH  - Dopamine/*metabolism
MH  - *Models, Biological
MH  - *Models, Neurological
MH  - Schizophrenia/*drug therapy/*metabolism
EDAT- 2006/12/15 09:00
MHDA- 2007/07/19 09:00
CRDT- 2006/12/15 09:00
PHST- 2006/10/19 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2006/10/22 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2006/12/15 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/07/19 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/12/15 09:00 [entrez]
AID - S0306-9877(06)00793-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.10.045 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Med Hypotheses. 2007;69(1):199-202. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.10.045. Epub 2006 
      Dec 12.