Open-label salsalate for the treatment of pre-diabetes in people with schizophrenia

Salsalate and/or metformin therapy confer beneficial metabolic effects in olanzapine treated female mice

Antipsychotic medications are used in the management of schizophrenia and a growing number of off-label conditions. While effective at reducing psychoses, these drugs possess noted metabolic side effects including weight gain, liver lipid accumulation and disturbances in glucose and lipid metabolism. To counter the side effects of antipsychotics standard of care has typically included metformin. Unfortunately, metformin does not protect against antipsychotic induced metabolic disturbances in all patients and thus additional treatment approaches are needed. One potential candidate could be salsalate, the prodrug of salicylate, which acts synergistically with metformin to improve indices of glucose and lipid metabolism in obese mice. The purpose of the current investigation was to compare the effects of salsalate, metformin and a combination of both drugs, on weight gain and indices of metabolic health in female mice treated with the antipsychotic, olanzapine. Herein we demonstrate that salsalate was equally as effective as metformin in protecting against olanzapine induced weight gain and liver lipid accumulation with no additional benefit of combining both drugs. Conversely, metformin treatment, either alone or in combination with salsalate, improved indices of glucose metabolism and increased energy expenditure in olanzapine treated mice. Collectively, our findings provide evidence that dual therapy with both metformin and salsalate could be an efficacious approach with which to dampen the metabolic consequences of antipsychotic medications.

Salsalate as an adjunctive treatment for psychopathology and cognition in patients with schizophrenia: a pilot study

This pilot study examined the effect of adjunctive salsalate on psychopathology and cognition in patients with schizophrenia. This was a 12-week, open-label trial of salsalate (1.5 g, twice per day) in patients with schizophrenia. Psychopathology, cognition, and daily function were assessed at baseline and week 12 using various rating scales. Blood levels of inflammatory markers including white blood cell count, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6 levels were also measured. Eight patients completed the study. There was no significant change in any of the rating scales at week 12. However, there was a trend decrease in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score, and a trend improvement in the Brief University of California San Diego Performance-based Skills Assessment total score (58.3±11.4 vs. 53.5±11.9, P=0.072; 69.7±18.2 vs. 79.1±15.9, P=0.084, respectively). There was a trend improvement in quality of life as measured by the Quality of Life Scale total score (74.0±20.8 vs. 76.9±22.7, P=0.080). There was a significant decrease in white blood cell count (6.8±1.3 vs. 6.0±1.2 k/mm, P=0.022). There was no change in the levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein or interleukin-6 over 12 weeks (P's>0.1). Salsalate may have positive therapeutic effect in patients with schizophrenia. Future studies to examine potential benefits of salsalate as an adjunctive treatment to improve clinical symptoms and daily function in patients with schizophrenia are warranted.

Disruptions of sensorimotor gating, cytokines, glycemia, monoamines, and genes in both sexes of rats reared in social isolation can be ameliorated by oral chronic quetiapine administration

The pathogenesis of schizophrenia in patients with metabolic abnormalities remains unclear. Our previous study demonstrated that isolation rearing (IR) induced longitudinal concomitant changes of pro-inflammatory cytokine (pro-CK) levels and metabolic abnormalities with a developmental origin. However, the general consensus, believes that these abnormalities are caused by antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenic patients. The IR paradigm presents with face, construct, and predictive validity for schizophrenia. Therefore, we employed IR rats of both sexes to examine whether chronic quetiapine (QTP, a second-generation antipsychotic medication) treatment induces disruptions of metabolism (body weight, blood pressure, and the glycemic and lipid profiles) or cytokines [interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, IL-10, interferon-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha], and further, whether it reverses deficits of behaviors [locomotor activity and prepulse inhibition (PPI)] and the expression of monoamines (dopamine and serotonin) and related genes (Htr1a, Htr2a, Htr3a, Drd1a, and Gabbr2). IR induced higher levels of pro-CK, dysglycemia, blood pressure, locomotor activity, and impaired PPI, simultaneously destabilizing cortico-striatal monoamines and relevant genes in both sexes, while QTP demonstrated dose-dependent reversal of these changes, suggesting that QTP might reduce the pro-CKs to regulate these abnormalities. Our data implied that antipsychotics may not be the solitary factor causing metabolic problems in schizophrenia and suggested that inflammatory changes may play a vital role in the developmental pathophysiology of schizophrenia and related metabolic abnormalities.