Title:N-acetyl-cysteine in Schizophrenia: Potential Role on the Sensitive Cysteine Proteome
Volume: 27
Issue: 37
关键词:
半胱氨酸,硫醇,反应物种,N-乙酰半胱氨酸,半胱氨酸,精神分裂症,半胱氨酸蛋白组
摘要: Background: N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) has shown widespread utility in different psychiatric
disorders, including a beneficial role in schizophrenic patients. Although the replenishment of glutathione
and the antioxidant activity of NAC have been suggested as the mechanisms that improve such
a wide range of disorders, none seems to be sufficiently specific to explain these intriguing effects. A
sensitive cysteine proteome is emerging as a functional and structural network of interconnected Sensitive
Cysteine-containing Proteins (SCCPs) that together with reactive species and the cysteine/
glutathione cycles can regulate the bioenergetic metabolism, the redox homeostasis and the cellular
growth, differentiation and survival, acting through different pathways that are regulated by the
same thiol radical in cysteine residues.
Objective: Since this sensitive cysteine network has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer's diseases, I have reviewed if the proteins that play a role in schizophrenia can be classified as
SCCPs.
Results: The results show that the principal proteins playing a role in schizophrenia can be classified as
SCCPs, suggesting that the sensitive cysteine proteome (cysteinet) is defective in this type of psychosis.
Conclusion: The present review proposes that there is a deregulation of the sensitive cysteine proteome
in schizophrenia as the consequence of a functional imbalance among different SCCPs, which play
different functions in neurons and glial cells. In this context, the role of NAC to restore and prevent
schizophrenic disorders is discussed.