TITLE:
The Potential of Cerebrolysin in the Treatment of Schizophrenia
AUTHORS:
Gonzalo Flores, Marco Atzori
KEYWORDS:
Cerebrolysin, Neurotrophic Factors, Schizophrenia, Prefrontal Cortex, Hippocampus, Amygdala
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.5 No.7,
June
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia and psychosis
are psychiatric condition whose neural mechanisms are yet incompletely known,
and for which pharmacological treatment is too often ineffective in a growing clinical cohort. Recently, dendritic morphological changes in arborization and dendritic
spine density in limbic regions has been reported in postmortem tissue from schizophrenic
patients and in animal models of schizophrenia, suggesting that the use of medication
improving synaptogenesis may be beneficial as additional treatment of psychotic
patients. Cerebrolysin (Cbl) is a drug available for clinical with active neuropeptides
fragments that mimics the action of endogenous neurotrophic factors such as BDNF,
GDNF, CNTF and NGF, which improves the integrity of the neuronal circuits as well
as cognitive and behavioral performance by exerting a neuroprotective effect and
promoting the generation of new functional synapses. Recent work from our laboratory
has shown that Cbl ameliorates synaptic and dendritic pathology in animal models
of schizophrenia by increasing synaptic density and restoring neuronal cytoarchitecture.
This neuroprotective effect improves the integrity of the neuronal circuits and
improves cognitive and behavioral performance. Importantly, Cbl treatment seems
to be safe when used in combination with neuroleptics such as risperidone. The present
article analyzes the potential of Cbl in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disease,
and reviews the current literature on the effects of Cbl in in vivo animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia.