Polyamines and polyamine-metabolizing enzymes in schizophrenia: Current knowledge and concepts of therapy

Table 2 Summary of polyamine-related findings in studies of animal models

Neuronal expression of ODC increased in rats with neonatal lesion of the ventral hippocampus[85].

Neuronal expression of SMOX increased in rats with neonatal lesion of the ventral hippocampus (unpublished).

Increased brain levels of putrescine, spermidine, spermine and arginine but decreased levels of agmatine were measured in rat offspring after maternal immune activation[86].

Agmatine disrupts prepulse inhibition in rats[87].

Agmatine attenuates the disruptive effects of phencyclidine on prepulse inhibition[88,89].

Injection of phencyclidine alters arginine metabolism in rat brain[90].

Withdrawal from repeated phencyclidine administration alters ARG activity and the levels of arginine metabolites in rat brain tissue[91,92].

No schizophrenia-like behavior in transgenic animals that overexpress ODC and/or SAT1[91].

SMOX overexpression in mice leads to glutamate excitotoxicity[91,92], a characteristic feature of “human” schizophrenia.

ARG: Arginase; ODC: Ornithine decarboxylase; SAT1: Spermidine/SpermineN1 acetyltransferase; SMOX: Spermine oxidase.