A drug, used in stroke patients to increase the caliber of blood vessels, would reverse the main symptoms of schizophrenia, according to a study.
- Certain genetic mutations play a role in the development of schizophrenia.
- The drug fasudil would effectively treat the symptoms of schizophrenia.
- Fasudil is already used in some countries, such as Japan, in people who have had a stroke to improve cognitive decline.
Japanese researchers may have found a new therapeutic approach to treating patients with schizophrenia, and it has already proven itself for another pathology. Indeed, according to their work on mice, a vasodilator called fasudil, used in patients who have suffered a stroke, could help patients with schizophrenia.
Fasudil has a beneficial impact on neurons
Schizophrenia is a complex chronic psychiatric pathology which schematically results in a disturbed perception of reality, productive manifestations, such as delusions or hallucinations, and passive manifestations, such as social and relational isolation, indicates theInserm.
According to the researchers, fasudil has an impact on blood vessels and would also reverse two common symptoms associated with this disease: the reduction in the density of certain neurons and cognitive dysfunction.
Through their work on mice, the Japanese team discovered that fasudil indeed restored the density of pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain associated with attention and long-term memory.
Schizophrenia also affects the morphology of the spine
Another symptom of schizophrenia is altered spinal density. And fasudil is also believed to have a beneficial impact by targeting certain enzymes that promote spinal shrinkage and destabilization that are genetically expressed in patients with schizophrenia.
“This is important because cognitive impairments, such as those seen in schizophrenia, are known to be associated with spinal morphology.said lead researcher Rinako Tanaka of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Medicine.
