Neuropeptide systems and schizophrenia

CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets. 2013 Aug;12(5):619-32. doi: 10.2174/1871527311312050010.

Abstract

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the world population, and the majority of pharmacologically based treatments for this disorder are ligands that interact with monoaminergic transmission. However, there is a wealth of evidence that various neuropeptides are often co-released with monoamine neurotransmitters, and that ligands acting at neuropeptide receptors modulate monoaminergic transmission as well as schizophrenia-related behaviors in preclinical animal models. Such neuropeptide systems include neurotensin, cholecystokinin, corticotropin releasing factor, neuropeptide Y, oxytocin, opioid peptides, tachykinins, thyrotropin-releasing hormone, and orexins. The purpose of this review will be to summarize the existing preclinical and clinical literature on the role of various neuropeptide systems as modulators of schizophrenia-related behaviors, and the potential of targeting these systems for the development of novel antipsychotic medications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / drug effects
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Databases, Factual / statistics & numerical data
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Humans
  • Neuropeptides / metabolism*
  • Neuropeptides / therapeutic use*
  • Receptors, Neuropeptide / metabolism
  • Schizophrenia* / drug therapy
  • Schizophrenia* / metabolism
  • Schizophrenia* / pathology

Substances

  • Neuropeptides
  • Receptors, Neuropeptide