Neutrons show accumulation of antidepressant in brain

Neutrons explain accumulation of antidepressant in brain

Experiments through neutrons at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) color that the antidepressant lithium accumulates greater amount of strongly in white matter of the brain than in grey substance. This leads to the conclusion that it works differently from synthetic psychotropic drugs. The chain samples were examined at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) with the aim of developing a advantage understanding of the effects this material has on the human psyche.

At donation lithium is most popular for its use in rechargeable batteries. But for decades things being so, lithium has also been used to entertainment various psychological diseases such as depressions, manias and bipolar disorders. But, the strict biological mode of action in known but unnamed brain regions has hardly been understood. It is well known that lithium lightens moods and reduces assault potential.

Because it is so unfavorable to dose, doctors have been backward to prescribe this "universal drug". Nonetheless, a call over of international studies have shown that a higher artless lithium content in drinking water leads to a frown suicide rate in the general peopling. Lithium accumulates in the brains of untreated canaille, too. This means that lithium, what one has so far been regarded in the same manner with unimportant, could be an essential wake element for humans.

Lithium detection with neutrons

This is what Josef Lichtinger is studying in his doctoral proposition at the Chair for Hadron and Nuclear Physics (E12) at the Technische Universitt Mnchen. From the Institute instead of Forensic Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Munich (LMU) he admitted tissue samples taken from patients treated with lithium, untreated patients and healthy criterion persons. The physicist exposed these to a focused devoid of warmth neutron beam of greatest intensity at the measuring degree for prompt gamma activation analysis at FRM II.

Lithium reacts with neutrons in a very specific habits and decays to a helium and a tritium iota. Using a special detector developed through Josef Lichtinger, traces as low taken in the character of 0.45 nanograms of lithium through gram of tissue can be moderate. "It is impossible to make measurements because precise as those using the neutrons with any other method," says Jutta Schpfer, proper to courts scientist at the LMU in charge of various research projects on lithium distribution in the human material part.

Lithium concentrates at the nerve-tracts

Lichtinger's results are marvellous: Only in the samples of a depressive long-suffering treated with lithium did he remark a higher accumulation of lithium in the in this way-called white matter. This is the kitchen-yard in the brain where nerve tracts advance. The lithium content in the adjacent grey matter was 3 to 4 periods lower. Lithium accumulation in white substance was not observed in a number of untreated depressive patients. This points to the fact that lithium does not work in the short time between nerve cells, like other psychotropic drugs, unless within the nerve tracts themselves.

In a next step Josef Lichtinger plans to study further tissue samples at TUM's Research Neutron Source in peace to confirm and expand his results. The goal is a extension-resolved map showing lithium accumulation in the brain of a strong and a depressive patient. This would grant leave to the universal drug lithium to be prescribed for psychological disorders with greater accuracy and control. The project is funded the agency of the German Research Foundation (DFG).