ArticleSchizophrenia bulletin2013
N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG) and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in patients with schizophrenia.
Article in Schizophrenia bulletin, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Processing Speed Impairment in Schizophrenia: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analytic evidence of elevated choline, reduced N-acetylaspartate, and normal creatine in schizophrenia and their moderation by measurement quality, echo time, and medication status.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2023Pooled it
- Glutamatergic and GABAergic metabolite levels in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: a meta-analysis ofMolecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Reduced responsiveness of the reward system is associated with tolerance to cannabis impairment in chronic users.Addiction biology · 2021Trial
- N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate connects neuroinflammatory signatures to attention and working memory in people with HIV.AIDS (London, England) · 2026Article
- Article
- Targeting NAAG metabolism restores cognition and synaptic integrity in EcoHIV-infected mice.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2026Article
- Toothache and Alzheimer's Disease: A Mendelian Randomization Study of the NAAG-CD33 Neuroimmune Axis.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Perimenopausal state oestradiol to progesterone imbalance drives Alzheimer's risk via ERRα dysregulation and energy dyshomeostasis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Correlation of N-acetylaspartyl glutamate level in the medial prefrontal cortex with FTND and daily smoking amounts in adult cigarette smokers.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Inhibition of brain glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII) to enhance cognitive function.Advances in pharmacology (San Diego, Calif.) · 2025Review
- Inverse Association Between Hypothalamic N-Acetyl Aspartate/Creatine Ratio and Indices of Body Mass in Adolescents with Obesity.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Dendrimer-2PMPA selectively blocks upregulated microglial GCPII activity and improves cognition in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.Nanotheranostics · 2022Article
- The potential ofPsychopharmacology · 2021Review
- Glutamine + glutamate level predicts the magnitude of microstructural organization in the gray matter in the healthy elderly.International psychogeriatrics · 2021Article
- Hippocampal Metabolite Profiles in Two Rat Models of Autism: NMR-Based Metabolomics Studies.Molecular neurobiology · 2020Article
- Potential clinical impact of multiparametric quantitative MR spectroscopy in neurological disorders: A review and analysis.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2020Review
- Cognition and Related Neural Findings on Methamphetamine Use Disorder: Insights and Treatment Implications From Schizophrenia Research.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Review
- Combination of volume and perfusion parameters reveals different types of grey matter changes in schizophrenia.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Pharmacological characterization of N-[(2S)-5-(6-fluoro-3-pyridinyl)-2, 3-dihydro-1H-inden-2-yl]-2-propanesulfonamide: a novel, clinical AMPA receptor positive allosteric modulator.British journal of pharmacology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
unlabelled
backgroundImbalance of glutamatergic neurotransmission has been proposed as a key mechanism underlying symptoms of schizophrenia. The neuropetide N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG) modulates glutamate release. NAAG provides a component of the proton magnetic resonance spectrum (1H-MRS) in humans. The signal of NAAG, however, largely overlaps with its precursor and degrading product N-acetylaspartate (NAA) that by itself does not act in glutamatergic neurotransmission.
methodsWe quantified NAAG and NAA separately from the 1H-MRS signal in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy comparison subjects on a 3.0 Tesla MR scanner. The 1H-MRS voxels were positioned in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and in the left frontal lobe. Psychopathological symptoms and cognitive performance were assessed.
resultsIn the ACC, the ratio NAAG/NAA was increased (P = .041) and NAAG was increased at a trend level (P = .066) in patients, while NAA was reduced (P = .030). NAA correlated with attention performance in patients (r = .64, P = .005) in the ACC. There was no group difference of NAAG, NAA, or NAAG/NAA in the frontal lobe but an inverse correlation of NAAG with negatives symptoms (Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale [PANSS] negative, r = -.58, P = .018) and with the total symptom score (PANSS total, r = -.50, P = .049). In addition, there was a positive correlation of frontal lobe NAAG (r = .53, P = .035) and NAAG/NAA (r = .54, P = .030) with episodic memory in patients.
conclusionsIn this study, we present the first in vivo evidence for altered NAAG concentration in patients with schizophrenia.
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