Topic: quinolinic acid

The NEGR1 (neuronal growth regulator 1) gene has been associated with schizophrenia phenotype in GWAS studies and its expression has been found to be altered in the brains of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. As altered profile of circulating kynurenine pathway metabolites has been linked with schizophrenia spectrum disorders as well, we aimed to find the differences in the brain and blood serum metabolite levels between wild-type mice and Negr1-deficient mice using MK-801 (dizocilpine) and a high-fat diet. The results suggest that kynurenine metabolism is strongly biased towards

The autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-associated 16p11.2 gene quinolinate phosphoribosyltransferase (QPRT) is essential for neuronal differentiation but not proliferation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. QPRT is part of tryptophan metabolism and catabolizes quinolinic acid (QUIN), a NMDA-R agonist neurotoxic for glutamatergic cells. However, we can exclude a QUIN-driven neurotoxicity in the SH-SY5Y model. In primary human neural progenitor cells, chemical inhibition of QPRT using phthalic acid (PA) leads to premature differentiation and a shift from neurons to astrocytes. Here, we employed cerebra