Abstract
Oxidative stress is a central mediator of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formation, and pyridoxamine (one of three components of vitamin B6) is known to detoxify reactive carbonyl compounds (RCOs). Toxic RCOs such as methylglyoxal, glyoxal, and 3- deoxyglucosone are formed from sugars, lipids, and amino acids. Accumulation of such RCOs, referred to as carbonyl stress, results in the modification of proteins and the eventual formation of AGEs such as pentosidine. In this study, we found that a certain subtype of schizophrenic patients exhibit idiopathic carbonyl stress with high plasma pentosidine levels and depletion of vitamin B6 in spite of no physical complications. Carbonyl stress is a new target of medication for schizophrenia without neurotransmitter based concept of therapeutics and inhibiting the carbonyl stress by pyridoxamine is expected to cure negative symptoms and treatment-registrant cases using conventional medications. In particular, the markedly high pentosidine level in schizophrenic patients with low vitamin B6 level suggest that pyridoxamine may prove clinical useful.
