Department of Psychiatry, Regional Hospital Liberec, Husova 10, 460 63 Liberec 1, Czech Republic.
Psychiatry Res. 2010 Apr 30;176(2-3):103-8. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2009.11.008. Epub 2010 Jan 22.
Glycine acts as an endogenous selective co-agonist at the glycine modulatory site of the NMDA (N-methyl-d-aspartate) receptor. Significantly decreased glycine serum levels were reported in patients with schizophrenia in comparison to healthy controls. Administration of glycine improved negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia treated with antipsychotics in some clinical trials. We hypothesized that glycine serum levels might be associated with intensity of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Fifty outpatients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia as defined by ICD-10 and fifty age- and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited into the study. Glycine serum levels were measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) to assess the symptoms of schizophrenia in the patients. We found mean glycine serum levels to be significantly lower in patients than in controls. This difference was only caused by findings in the male study population. Glycine serum levels were negatively associated with intensity of negative symptoms assessed by the PANSS negative subscale and the SANS total scores in the patients. These data suggest a possible implication of NMDA receptor dysfunction in the pathogenesis of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
甘氨酸作为内源性选择性协同激动剂作用于 NMDA（N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸）受体的甘氨酸调节位点。与健康对照组相比，精神分裂症患者的血清甘氨酸水平显著降低。一些临床试验表明，在接受抗精神病药物治疗的精神分裂症患者中，给予甘氨酸可改善阴性症状。我们假设血清甘氨酸水平可能与精神分裂症阴性症状的严重程度有关。本研究纳入了 50 名符合 ICD-10 诊断标准的精神分裂症门诊患者和 50 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者。采用高效液相色谱法（HPLC）测定血清甘氨酸水平。使用阳性和阴性症状量表（PANSS）和阴性症状量表（SANS）评估患者的精神分裂症症状。我们发现，与对照组相比，患者的血清甘氨酸水平显著降低。这种差异仅由男性研究人群的发现引起。患者的血清甘氨酸水平与 PANSS 阴性量表和 SANS 总分评估的阴性症状严重程度呈负相关。这些数据表明，NMDA 受体功能障碍可能与精神分裂症阴性症状的发病机制有关。
