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Essay On Phencyclidine

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Chronic phencyclidine induces inflammatory responses and activates GSK3β in mice. Use of phencyclidine (PCP) in rodents can mimic some aspects of schizophrenia. However, the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Growing evidence indicates that neuroinflammation plays a significant role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In this study, we focused on inflammatory responses as target of PCP for inducing schizophrenia-like symptoms. 3-month-old C57BL/6J mice received daily injections of PCP (20 mg/kg, i.p.) or saline for one week. PCP-injected mice produced schizophrenia-like behaviours including impaired spatial short-term memory assessed by the Y-maze task and sensorimotor gating deficits in a prepulse inhibition task. Simultaneously, …show more content…

Therefore, the pathological process underlying schizophrenia may involve neuroinflammatory responses in the central nervous system (CNS).
Noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, including phencyclidine (PCP), evoke schizophrenia-like psychosis and cognitive deficits in healthy humans [10, 11] and similar cognitive deficits and hyperlocomotion related to positive symptoms in rodents [12, 13, 14, 15]. Studies on the behavioural deficits induced by PCP have focused on its possible mechanism in disrupting glutamatergic NMDA neurotransmission leading to neuronal degeneration [16]. One study has shown that there was an increased expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) after chronic PCP administration in rats [17]. Therefore, it is important to address the neuroinflammatory changes in the PCP-induced mouse model of schizophrenia.
Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) is a key regulator in various physiological pathways, including protein synthesis, cell differentiation, apoptosis and cell survival [18]. It has been demonstrated that GSK3β signaling is impaired in schizophrenia [19]. Furthermore, GSK3β inhibition attenuates activation of the proinflammatory transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), as well as the resulting effects on NFκB-mediated gene expression, indicating that GSK3β

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