title: N-acetylaspartate reduction in the medial prefrontal cortex following 8 weeks of risperidone treatment in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia patients.
abstract: It is unclear whether N-acetylaspartate (NAA) depletions documented in schizophrenia patients might be due to the disease progression or medications. Here we investigated longitudinal NAA changes in drug-naïve first-episode patients (FEP) who are relatively free from chronicity. Forty-two drug-naïve FEP and 38 controls were enrolled in this study to explore the effect of 8-week risperidone monotherapy on NAA. All spectra were obtained from the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) on a 3.0 T MRI and analyzed with LCModel. At baseline, patients presented no significant differences in NAA (P = 0.084) or NAA/Cr + Pcr (P = 0.500) compared to controls; NAA levels were negatively correlated with PANSS total scores (P = 0.001) and WCST-PE (P = 0.041). After treatment, patients demonstrated significant reductions of NAA (P < 0.001) and NAA/Cr + Pcr (P < 0.001), and significant improvement in PANSS-P (P < 0.001) and PANSS-G (P < 0.001) symptoms. We detected no significant correlations between NAA alterations and PANSS-P (P = 0.679) or PANSS-G (P = 0.668) symptom changes; nor did NAA/Cr + Pcr changes with alterations in PANSS-P (P = 0.677) and PANSS-G (P = 0.616). This is the first evidence that short-term risperidone treatment induces an acute reduction of MPFC NAA during the early phase of schizophrenia, which may be a previously unavailable biomarker to indicate risperidone with a similar pharmacological mechanism, although the functional significance is still unclear.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Maolin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Zongchang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Unit on Statistical Genomics, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, USA.
authors.forename: Hongbao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Yanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, China.
authors.forename: Deen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, China.
authors.forename: Hongzeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Jinsong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Henan Key Lab of Biological Psychiatry, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, PR China; Department of Psychiatry, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, China.
authors.forename: Luxian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Mental Health, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China [2] Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China [3] National Technology of Institute of Psychiatry, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D018967:Risperidone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D018967:Risperidone