GLIAL CELLS IN THE SCHIZOPHRENIA PUZZLE: ANGIOTENSIN II ROLE

OCCHIEPPO, VICTORIA BELÉN; BASMADJIAN, OSVALDO MARTÍN; MARCHESE, NATALIA ANDREA; RODRIGUEZ, ANAHI; JAIME, ANDREA; HERRERA, MALENA; BREGONZIO, CLAUDIA; GARGIULO PASCUAL A.; MESONES HUMBERTO

Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update

Springer Nature Switzerland

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2021; p. 169 - 181

Schizophrenia is a neuropsychiatric disease with 1% worldwide prevalence and characterized by a deep distortion in thought and perception, cognitive dysfunction and social behavioral deficits. After the discovery of the antipsychotic effects of chlorpromazine, a large body of evidence pointed out to the neurotransmission miss-balance as the main factor in the development of this pathology. Nowadays, it is known that schizophrenia is related to a pluri-factorial etiopathogenesis where gene factors, neuroinflammation and brain microenvironment´s alterations are taken into account as well. In this sense, glial cells (oligodendrocytes, astrocytes and microglial cells) are essential pieces in brain microenvironment with crucial roles in synaptic establishment and function, neuroinflammation, metabolic and ion homeostasis, among others. Currently, glial cells are the target of numerous researches on the race to puzzle out the schizophrenia etiopathology.Among the multiplicity of regulatory substances involved in glial cell functionality, it becomes outstanding the newly described roles for brain Angiotensin II (Ang II). This neuropeptide, through its AT1 receptors (AT1-R), expressed in neurons and glial cells modulate brain homeostasis and several neurotransmission systems (dopaminergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic), and has a pro-inflammatory role in pathological conditions. In this way, Ang II has been involved in cognition processes, stress responses and mental disorders as schizophrenia, addiction, Parkinson´s and Alzheimer´s diseases. In this chapter, we aimed to summarize the role of the glial cells in the schizophrenia with a special reference to AT1-R involvement in this complex scenario.¬