Abstract #0219

in vivo Evidence for Abnormal Cerebral Bioenergetics in Schizophrenia Measured by 31P Magnetization Transfer Spectroscopy

Fei Du¹, Alissa Cooper², Thida Thida², Selma Sehovic², Scott Lukas¹, Bruce Cohen¹, Xiaoliang Zhang³, Dost Ongur¹

¹McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, United States; ²McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, United States; ³Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a common and severe brain disorder associated with poor functional outcome. Despite suggestions of abnormal mitochondrial and bioenergetic function in SZ, creatine kinase (CK) reaction rate, a direct biomarker of bioenergetics, has not previously been measured in vivo. Here, we report our primary results using a novel 31P MRS approach; the CK reaction rate was found a substantial reduction in SZ. Therefore we provided first direct and compelling in vivo evidence for a specific bioenergetic abnormality in SZ, which would provide crucial information for understanding underlying molecular mechanism, and novel targets for drug development in SZ.