title: A CSF and postmortem brain study of D-serine metabolic parameters in schizophrenia.
abstract: Clinical trials demonstrated that D-serine administration improves schizophrenia symptoms, raising the possibility that altered levels of endogenous D-serine may contribute to the N-methyl D-aspartate receptor hypofunction thought to play a role in the disease. We hypothesized that cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) D-serine levels are decreased in the patients due to reduced synthesis and/or increased degradation in brain. We now monitored amino acid levels in CSF from 12 schizophrenia patients vs. 12 controls and in postmortem parietal-cortex from 15 control subjects and 15 each of schizophrenia, major-depression and bipolar patients. In addition, we monitored postmortem brain serine racemase and D-amino acid oxidase protein levels by Western-blot analysis. We found a 25% decrease in D-serine levels and D/L-serine ratio in CSF of schizophrenia patients, while parietal-cortex D-serine was unaltered. Levels of L-serine, L-glutamine and L-glutamate were unaffected. Frontal-cortex (39%) and hippocampal (21%) serine racemase protein levels and hippocampal serine racemase/D-amino acid oxidase ratio (34%) were reduced. Hippocampal D-amino-acid-oxidase protein levels significantly correlated with duration of illness (r=0.6, p=0.019) but not age. D-amino acid oxidase levels in patients with DOI>20 years were 77% significantly higher than in the other patients and controls. Our results suggest that reduced brain serine racemase and elevated D-amino acid oxidase protein levels may contribute to the lower CSF D-serine levels in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 31096, Israel.
authors.forename: Inna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bendikov
authors.forename: Carmit
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nadri
authors.forename: Shirly
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amar
authors.forename: Rogerio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Panizzutti
authors.forename: Joari
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Miranda
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wolosker
authors.forename: Galila
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Agam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003605:D-Amino-Acid Oxidase / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D005973:Glutamine / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D019998:Racemases and Epimerases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000473:pathology; D012694:Serine / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D000099300:Serine Racemase
chemical_list: D003605:D-Amino-Acid Oxidase; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D005973:Glutamine; D019998:Racemases and Epimerases; D012694:Serine; D000099300:Serine Racemase; C417983:DAO protein, human