K P Singh
University of Allahabad, India
Title: Maternal exposure to novel atypical psychotropic drugs: Impact on fetal brain development, apoptosis, neurodegeneration and psychopathological sequelae in young offspring
Biography
Biography: K P Singh
Abstract
Clinical and non-clinical literature revealed that in utero exposure to classical psychotropic drugs may lead to abnormal brain development and related functional disorders in children, but reports on new generation psychotropic drugs are limited and inconclusive. Therefore, present study has been taken to reveal the impact of therapeutic psychotropic agents on fetal brain development and genesis of psychiatric disorders in young offspring. In this study, pregnant C-F rats were used and equivalent therapeutic doses of some atypical psychotropic drugs of different classes like antipsychotics (RIS, QUE, ARI and ASN), antiepileptics (PGB, ESL and GBP) and antidepressants (VEN) were administered during sensitive phase of fetal brain development. At GD 21, about half of the dams of drugs exposed and non-exposed dams were sacrificed and their fetal brains were assessed for architectural pattern of neurocortical layers, neuronal migrations and neuronal apoptosis (Bax, Bcl-2, Annexin-5 kit assay, EM & RT-PCR), and their lasting impact on neurodevelopment and genesis of psychiatric disorders in young offspring. This laboratory revealed that therapeutically relevant doses of atypical psychotropic drugs may induce default neural migration, altered neuroarchitectural pattern; enhanced apoptotic neurodegeneration in different neuronal layers of neocortex and hippocampus of fetal brain and overt expression of anxiety, depression and cognition (learning and memory) like psychiatric disorders in young offspring. The neurobiology and genesis of these psychiatric disorders is associated with confounding factors (intrinsic and extrinsic). This study concludes that prenatal exposure to atypical psychotropic agents may induce abnormal fetal brain development and neurobehavioral sequelae in young offspring, therefore precautions should be taken by the health care providers before prescribing these agents to pregnant population.