Negative Correlation between Brain Glutathione Level and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A 3T 1H-MRS Study

BACKGROUND: Glutathione (GSH), a major intracellular antioxidant, plays a role in NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission, which is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether GSH levels are altered in the posterior medial frontal cortex of schizophrenic patients. Furthermore, we examined correlations between GSH levels and clinical variables in patients. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Twenty schizophrenia patients and 16 age- and gender-matched normal controls were enrolled to examine the levels of GSH in the posterior medial frontal cortex by using 3T SIGNA EXCITE (1)H-MRS with the spectral editing technique, MEGA-PRESS. Clinical variables of patients were assessed by the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Drug-Induced Extra-Pyramidal Symptoms Scale (DIEPSS), and five cognitive performance tests (Word Fluency Test, Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Digit Span Distractibility Test). Levels of GSH in the posterior medial frontal cortex of schizophrenic patients were not different from those of normal controls. However, we found a significant negative correlation between GSH levels and the severity of negative symptoms (SANS total score and negative symptom subscore on BPRS) in patients. There were no correlations between brain GSH levels and scores on any cognitive performance test except Trail Making Test part A. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that GSH levels in the posterior medial frontal cortex may be related to negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients. Therefore, agents that increase GSH levels in the brain could be potential therapeutic drugs for negative symptoms in schizophrenia

Development of a dielectric equivalent gel for better impedance matching

11th Scientific Meeting and Exibitio

19F high senseitivity imaging for in vivo drug dynamics in mice at 7T with 5-FU

Introduction: The evaluation of drug efficacy and safety for individuals will become more reliable by performing direct dynamical study of drug itself. This is a study towards this purpose using 5-FU in animals. CSI is often used for the metabolite distribution. However, for the compounds with metabolites in wide range of chemical shift, generation of pulse covering sufficient band width is difficult for imaginginstrument. One of the best methods for the dynamical study of 19F containing drug, e.g. 5-FU, has been found to be frequency selective imaging [1]. Here, we evaluate fast imaging sequences including FISP and Flash in comparison to FSE at 7T.International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine(ISMRM) 14th Scientific Meeting and Exhibitio