1.
A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study of Lovastatin for Treating Bipolar Mood Disorder: A 4-Week Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo- Controlled Clinical Trial.
Lotfi, M, Shafiee, S, Ghanizadeh, A, Sigaroudi, MO, Razeghian, L
Recent patents on inflammation & allergy drug discovery. 2017;(2):133-141
Abstract
BACKGROUND No trial has examined the effect of lovastatin on the brain metabolites in patients with bipolar mood disorder. OBJECTIVES Current medications for treating bipolar disorders cause metabolic syndrome. It is supposed that lovastatin not only decreases the rate of metabolic syndrome but also impacts some brain metabolites and their ratio like common treatments that are measured by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. METHODS 27 Manic phase patients were randomly allocated into two groups, lovastatin and placebo as their adjuant medication. Clinical symptoms were assessed at baseline, weeks 2, 4. The brain metabolites were measured at baseline and week 4. RESULT Regarding the change of clinical symptoms, no significant difference was found between two groups. However, lovastatin significantly increased the level of NAA in cingulate gyrus in comparison to the placebo group. Moreover, lovastatin more than placebo increased creatine in the left basal ganglia. Furthermore, choline/ creatine showed a significant decrease in the left basal ganglia in lovastatin group. CONCLUSION Using MRS after treating with lovastatin showed lovastatin increases NAA in cingulate gyrus, indicating the possible effect of NAA for increasing the reduced viable neuron. Moreover, the increment of Cr by lovastatin in the left basal ganglia suggests the role of lovastatin for maintaining energy homeostasis, anti-apoptotic activity and ATP production in bipolar disorder. Some patents using lovastatin as an adjuant therapy for treating bipolar patients and depression in MDD patients are also outlined. This trial was registered in the Iranian Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.irct.ir/) (IRCT201302203930N18).
2.
Creatine has no beneficial effect on skeletal muscle energy metabolism in patients with single mitochondrial DNA deletions: a placebo-controlled, double-blind 31P-MRS crossover study.
Kornblum, C, Schröder, R, Müller, K, Vorgerd, M, Eggers, J, Bogdanow, M, Papassotiropoulos, A, Fabian, K, Klockgether, T, Zange, J
European journal of neurology. 2005;(4):300-9
Abstract
The purpose of our randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study in 15 patients with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) or Kearns-Sayre syndrome (KSS) because of single large-scale mitochondrial (mt) DNA deletions was to determine whether oral creatine (Cr) monohydrate can improve skeletal muscle energy metabolism in vivo. Each treatment phase with Cr in a dosage of 150 mg/kg body weight/day or placebo lasted 6 weeks. The effect of Cr was estimated by phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((31)P-MRS), clinical and laboratory tests. (31)P-MRS analysis prior to treatment showed clear evidence of severe mitochondrial dysfunction. However, there were no relevant changes in (31)P-MRS parameters under Cr. In particular, phosphocreatine (PCr)/ATP at rest did not increase, and there was no facilitation of post-exercise PCr recovery. Clinical scores and laboratory tests did not alter significantly under Cr, which was tolerated without major side-effects in all patients. Cr supplementation did not improve skeletal muscle oxidative phosphorylation in our series of patients. However, one explanation for our negative findings may be the short study duration or the limited number of patients included.