1. Psychosocial Stress Induces Schizophrenia-Like Behavior in Mice With Reduced MMP-9 Activity
- Author
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Behnam Vafadari, Shiladitya Mitra, Marzena Stefaniuk, and Leszek Kaczmarek
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Matrix metalloproteinase ,Antipsychotic ,Clozapine ,Gene × Environment (g×e) Interaction ,Mmp-9 ,Negative Symptoms ,Schizophrenia ,lcsh:RC321-571 ,Pathogenesis ,03 medical and health sciences ,Behavioral Neuroscience ,0302 clinical medicine ,Internal medicine ,mental disorders ,medicine ,gene × environment (G×E) interaction ,ddc:610 ,Risk factor ,lcsh:Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,negative symptoms ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,clozapine ,business.industry ,Cognition ,Brief Research Report ,medicine.disease ,Pathophysiology ,ddc ,antipsychotic ,schizophrenia ,Endocrinology ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,business ,MMP-9 ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Understanding gene-environment interactions in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia remains a major research challenge. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) has been previously implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In the present study, adolescent Mmp-9 heterozygous mice, with a genetically lower level of MMP-9, were subjected to resident-intruder psychosocial stress for 3 weeks and then examined in behavioral tests that evaluated cognitive deficits and positive- and negative-like symptoms of schizophrenia. Cognitive and positive symptoms in unstressed Mmp-9 heterozygous mice were unaffected by stress exposure, whereas negative symptoms were manifested only after stress exposure. Interestingly, negative symptoms were ameliorated by treatment with the antipsychotic drug clozapine. We describe a novel gene × environment interaction mouse model of schizophrenia. Lower MMP-9 levels in the brain might be a risk factor for schizophrenia that, in combination with environmental factors (e.g., psychosocial stress), may evoke schizophrenia-like symptoms that are sensitive to antipsychotic treatment.
- Published
- 2019
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