An Investigation of the Sodium Nitroprusside Effects on Serum Lipids in an Animal Model of Schizophrenia by the Magnetic Resonance Study

Abstract

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a multifactorial mental illness with limited knowledge concerning pathogenesis, contributing to the lack of effective therapies. More recently, the use of a nitric oxide donor named sodium nitroprusside (sNP) was suggested as a potential therapeutic drug for the treatment of SCZ. Despite the mixed results regarding the effectiveness of the sNP in reducing SCZ symptoms, successful trials on sNP in treatment-resistant SCZ were published. We have also demonstrated the power of evaluating the lipidic profiles of human clinical and animal model samples to identify the biomarkers of the pharmacological response to the diagnosis of mental disorders. Aim of this work is to evaluate the sNP effects in an animal model for SCZ studies through lipidomic profiles assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Lipidic profiling of serum from these animals indicated a more pronounced effect of sNP on lipids in the 0.50–6.00 ppm spectral region. Chemometric analysis also indicated an approximation of the lipidic profiling of SCZ animal model rats treated with sNP compared to that of the control group. In addition, we have compared the sNP treatment with other antipsychotics classically used in the clinic, such as haloperidol and clozapine, and the sNP treatment evaluated herein confirms the potential of sNP for the treatment of SCZ.