Elsevier

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Volume 71, December 2016, Pages 563-577
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Review article
Evaluation of neuron-glia integrity by in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy: Implications for psychiatric disorders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.027Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Proposed the neurochemical correlates of neuron-astrocyte integrity and axon-myelin integrity.

  • Reviewed experimental 1H-MRS evidence for neuron-glia integrity impairments;.

  • Reviewed a great body of 1H-MRS studies that measured brain metabolites in patients with schizophrenia, BD, or MDD patients.

Abstract

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) has been widely applied in human studies. There is now a large literature describing findings of brain MRS studies with mental disorder patients including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders. However, the findings are mixed and cannot be reconciled by any of the existing interpretations. Here we proposed the new theory of neuron-glia integrity to explain the findings of brain 1H-MRS stuies. It proposed the neurochemical correlates of neuron-astrocyte integrity and axon-myelin integrity on the basis of update of neurobiological knowledge about neuron-glia communication and of experimental MRS evidence for impairments in neuron-glia integrity from the authors and the other investigators. Following the neuron-glia integrity theories, this review collected evidence showing that glutamate/glutamine change is a good marker for impaired neuron-astrocyte integrity and that changes in N-acetylaspartate and lipid precursors reflect impaired myelination. Moreover, this new theory enables us to explain the differences between MRS findings in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Keywords

Neuron-glia integrity
MRS
Neurometabolites
Neurodegenerative disorders
Psychiatric disorders

Cited by (0)