So, haloperidol IS toxic...

December 15, 2003

/hl_nm/schizophrenia_epo_dc

EPO Might Help People with Schizophrenia

Fri Dec 12, 6:25 PM ET

By Karla Gale

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The anemia drug erythropoietin, commonly known

as EPO, may be helpful for patients with schizophrenia, German researchers

report.

New research in mice and in humans suggests EPO could improve the mental

function of schizophrenics, and perhaps slow the deterioration that

continues even when patients are treated with existing drugs.

Dr. Hannelore Ehrenreich, at Georg-August-University, Goettingen, and her

associates note in the medical journal Molecular Psychiatry that their

article is intended to " prepare the ground " for using EPO as add-on therapy

for schizophrenia.

The editor of the journal, Dr. Julio Licinio, told Reuters Health that

experts who reviewed the paper " all said the science was very good. "

Licinio, who is professor of medicine and psychiatry at the Geffen

School of Medicine, UCLA, said the German team's discoveries are

particularly exciting at this time. " We are desperate to find a new drug, "

he added.

Ehrenreich's team injected five patients with schizophrenia and five healthy

subjects with EPO tagged with a radioisotope. Brain scans showed that EPO

entered the brain four hours after administration and lasted for at least 2

days. Levels were higher in the schizophrenic subjects.

They also showed in lab experiments that EPO blunted the toxic effects of

the drug haloperidol on brain cells.

To examine the potential mental effects of EPO, the group tested it in mice

that had learned to avoid a food that made them ill but were given no other

food source. This mimics to some extent what happens in the brain in

schizophrenia, and EPO enhanced the mental function of mice in this

situation.

Ehrenreich and her colleagues conclude that EPO is " an interesting compound "

that may protect brain cells in schizophrenia as well as other similar human

disease. Based on their results, a multicenter " proof-of-concept " trial has

been started.

SOURCE: Molecular Psychiatry, December 2003.

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