Enhanced neurotensin neurotransmission is involved in the clinically relevant behavioral effects of antipsychotic drugs: Evidence from animal models of sensorimotor gating

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Elisabeth Binder, Emory University; Becky Kinkead, Emory University; Michael Owens, Emory University; Clinton D Kilts, Emory University; Charles B Nemeroff, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2001-01-15
• Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2001 Society for Neuroscience
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.21-02-00601.2001
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Neuroscience
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 601
• End Page: 608
• Grant/Funding Information: National Institutes of Health Research Grant MH-39415; E.B.B. was supported by a stipend from the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Keywords: quetiapine; Neurosciences & Neurology; RECEPTOR; SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS; prepulse inhibition; Science & Technology; haloperidol; BRAIN; DEFICITS; SR 142948A; GABA RELEASE; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Neurosciences; isolation rearing; PREPULSE INHIBITION; RAT; STRIATAL DOPAMINE; CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM; LATENT INHIBITION; latent inhibition
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

To date, none of the available antipsychotic drugs are curative, all have significant side-effect potential, and a receptor-binding profile predictive of superior therapeutic ability has not been determined. It has become increasingly clear that schizophrenia does not result from the dysfunction of a single neurotransmitter system, but rather from an imbalance between several interacting systems. Targeting neuropeptide neuromodulator systems that concertedly regulate all affected neurotransmitter systems could be a promising novel therapeutic approach for schizophrenia. A considerable database is concordant with the hypothesis that antipsychotic drugs act, at least in part, by increasing the synthesis and release of the neuropeptide neurotensin (NT). In this report, we demonstrate that NT neurotransmission is critically involved in the behavioral effects of antipsychotic drugs in two models of antipsychotic drug activity: disrupted prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response (PPI) and the latent inhibition (LI) paradigm. Blockade of NT neurotransmission using the NT receptor antagonist 2-[[5-(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(4-(N-(3-di-methylaminopropyl)-N-me thylcarbamoyl)-2-isopropylphenyl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carbonyl]-amino]- adamantane-2-carboxylic acid, hydrochloride (SR 142948A) prevented the normal acquisition of LI and haloperidol-induced enhancement of LI. In addition, SR 142948A blocked the PPI-restoring effects of haloperidol and the atypical antipsychotic drug quetiapine in isolation-reared animals deficient in PPI. We also provide evidence of deficient NT neurotransmission as well as a left-shifted antipsychotic drug dose-response curve in isolation-reared rats. These novel findings, together with previous observations, suggest that neurotensin receptor agonists may represent a novel class of antipsychotic drugs.