Project Summary

Guochuan Emil Tsai, M.D., Ph.D., (Independent Investigator 2006) of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, at the University of California, Los Angeles, aims to study sarcosine, a glycine uptake inhibitor, for cognition enhancement in schizophrenia. A glycine uptake inhibitor increases the amount of the amino acid glycine in the brain. Having more of the amino acid glycine around in the brain may be helpful in treating schizophrenia because of its role in activating the NMDA receptor, which requires binding of both the amino acid glutamate and the amino acid glycine to function effectively. It is believed the NMDA receptor may play a role in schizophrenia because inhibitors of the receptor cause symptoms of paranoia, delusion, withdrawal, affect flattening and cognitive defects associated with the condition. In this project, Dr. Tsai will investigate whether adjunctive sarcosine treatment will reverse cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenic patients. One hundred patients will be recruited into the 12-week trial and assigned to either sarcosine or placebo, randomly and blindly, as adjuvant therapy with their current atypical antipsychotics. The patients will be monitored using the test battery called MATRICS. This is the first systematic study to look at an NMDA enhancer on cognition. If the results are positive, NMDA enhancing strategy could become a prominent treatment for patients with schizophrenia or with cognitive deficits caused by other diseases.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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