Additive effects of olanzapine and melanin-concentrating hormone agonism on energy balance

Atypical antipsychotic drugs (AAPDs) induce hyperphagia and body weight gain as a deleterious side effect. However, the mechanism whereby these drugs affect the neuronal pathways regulating energy balance has yet to be fully elucidated. The present study was conducted to investigate the respective and interaction effects of olanzapine and agonism of the melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) receptor (MCHR1) on body weight, food intake, adiposity and expressions of genes liable of being involved in the anabolic action of AAPDs and MCH agonism. MCH is a hypothalamic neuropeptide, which exerts stimulating effects on food intake and body weight gain. Male Wistar rats received olanzapine (1 mg/kg of rat/day per os) and/or an intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of a MCHR1 agonist (30 μg/rat/day) during 13 days. Food intake and body weight were recorded daily, whereas adipose tissue depots were weighed at day 13. At the end of the experiment, we also measured brain levels of the messengers RNAs (mRNAs) encoding for MCH, MCHR1, neuropeptides-Y (NPY) and agouti-related peptide (AgRP) using in situ hybridization. The 13-day treatments combining olanzapine and the MCHR1 agonist exerted additive effects in enhancing food intake and adiposity. Consistently, each treatment differently affected brain expression of genes influencing energy balance. While the MCHR1 agonist treatment increased NPY mRNA expression in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus, olanzapine treatment specifically increased MCHR1 mRNA expression in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh). AAPDs and MCH agonism exert additive effects on energy balance and selective effects on the brain expression of energy balance-related genes.