Saleem Shamaila, Shaukat Faiza, Gul Anjuman, Arooj Mahwish, Malik Arif
Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2017 Jul-Sep;11(3):63-68.
Schizophrenia is a syndrome of inconclusive etiopathogenesis with a prevalence of about 1% in general population. Underlying factors include genetic predisposition and defected neurodevelopment in early stages of life. The role of amino acids has been indicated in some reports. However, very few workers have detailed the effect of each amino acid in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Thus, in the present review, we aimed to provide an insight into the potential role of amino acids levels during schizophrenia. Any single amino acid defect cannot lead to the development of the disease. Higher concentration of glycine, serine, glutamate, homocysteine, and arginine are reported by many scientists in blood samples of patients of schizophrenia. Levels of rest of the amino acids show inconsistent results. Involvement of glutamate in pathophysiology of schizophrenia was hypothesized as early as the 1980s. It was demonstrated that dissociative anesthetics which are N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists can produce all negative, psychotic, cognitive, and physiological features of schizophrenia in healthy controls. This led to the development of hypothesis of NMDA receptor hypofunctioning in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Later on, it was also found that agents enhancing functioning of NMDA receptor at glycine modulatory site, improved symptoms in patients of schizophrenia receiving antipsychotic medications. Thus, the relationship of perturb amino acid levels with the biological basis and pathophysiology of schizophrenia is an important area to be further explored for effective management of schizophrenic patients.
精神分裂症是一种病因未明的综合征，在普通人群中的患病率约为1%。潜在因素包括遗传易感性和生命早期的神经发育缺陷。一些报告指出了氨基酸的作用。然而，很少有研究人员详细阐述每种氨基酸在精神分裂症病理生理学中的作用。因此，在本综述中，我们旨在深入了解氨基酸水平在精神分裂症中的潜在作用。任何单一氨基酸缺陷都不会导致该疾病的发生。许多科学家报告称，精神分裂症患者血液样本中甘氨酸、丝氨酸、谷氨酸、同型半胱氨酸和精氨酸的浓度较高。其余氨基酸的水平结果不一致。早在20世纪80年代就有人提出谷氨酸参与精神分裂症的病理生理学。已证明，作为N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸（NMDA）受体拮抗剂的解离麻醉剂可在健康对照者中产生精神分裂症的所有阴性、精神病性、认知和生理特征。这导致了NMDA受体功能低下在精神分裂症病理生理学中的假说的发展。后来还发现，增强NMDA受体在甘氨酸调节位点功能的药物可改善接受抗精神病药物治疗的精神分裂症患者的症状。因此，氨基酸水平紊乱与精神分裂症的生物学基础和病理生理学之间的关系是一个有待进一步探索的重要领域，以便有效地管理精神分裂症患者。
