Chronic olanzapine treatment decreases arachidonic acid turnover and prostaglandin E₂ concentration in rat brain.

Abstract

The atypical antipsychotic, olanzapine (OLZ), is used to treat bipolar disorder, but its therapeutic mechanism of action is not clear. Arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n-6) plays a critical role in brain signaling and an up-regulated AA metabolic cascade was reported in postmortem brains from bipolar disorder patients. In this study, we tested whether, similar to the action of the mood stabilizers lithium, carbamazepine and valproate, chronic OLZ treatment would reduce AA turnover in rat brain. We administered OLZ (6 mg/kg/day) or vehicle i.p. to male rats once daily for 21 days. A washout group received 21 days of OLZ followed by vehicle on day 22. Two hours after the last injection, [1-¹⁴C]AA was infused intravenously for 5 min, and timed arterial blood samples were taken. After the rat was killed at 5 min, its brain was microwaved, removed and analyzed. Chronic OLZ decreased plasma unesterified AA concentration, AA incorporation rates and AA turnover in brain phospholipids. These effects were absent after washout. Consistent with reduced AA turnover, OLZ decreased brain cyclooxygenase activity and the brain concentration of the proinflammatory AA-derived metabolite, prostaglandin E₂, In view of up-regulated brain AA metabolic markers in bipolar disorder, the abilities of OLZ and the mood stabilizers to commonly decrease prostaglandin E₂, and AA turnover in rat brain phospholipids, albeit by different mechanisms, may be related to their efficacy against the disease.

• Authors: Yewon Cheon, Jee-Young Park, Hiren R Modi, Hyung-Wook Kim, Ho-Joo Lee, Lisa Chang, Jagadeesh S Rao, Stanley I Rapoport
• Journal: Journal of neurochemistry (J Neurochem) Vol. 119 Issue 2 Pg. 364-76 (Oct 2011) ISSN: 1471-4159 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 21812779 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural)
• Copyright: Published 2011. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Chemical References

• Acyl Coenzyme A
• Antipsychotic Agents
• Benzodiazepines
• Arachidonic Acid
• Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases
• Phospholipases A2
• Dinoprostone
• Olanzapine
• Choline

Topics

• Acyl Coenzyme A (metabolism)
• Algorithms
• Animals
• Antipsychotic Agents (pharmacology)
• Arachidonic Acid (metabolism)
• Benzodiazepines (pharmacology)
• Blood Pressure (drug effects)
• Blotting, Western
• Body Weight (drug effects)
• Brain Chemistry (drug effects)
• Choline (metabolism)
• Chromatography, Gas
• Cytosol (drug effects, metabolism)
• Dinoprostone (metabolism)
• Half-Life
• Heart Rate (drug effects)
• Kinetics
• Lipid Metabolism (drug effects)
• Male
• Olanzapine
• Phospholipases A2 (metabolism)
• Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases (metabolism)
• Rats
• Rats, Inbred F344
• Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction