Cytosolic prostaglandin E2 synthase (cPGES) expression is decreased in discrete cortical regions in psychiatric disease

The number of adults in the US affected by bipolar disorder, depression, or schizophrenia is approaching 15 million. Despite decades of research, etiologies of these illnesses remain elusive. Theories of aberrant brain morphology, neurotransmission, and signal conduction have provided the heuristic framework for a large body of literature, with attention focused upon hypotheses of monoamine signaling underlying psychiatric disease. More recently, attention has turned to potential contributions of other signaling pathways, including the arachidonic acid cascade and generation of prostaglandins (PG). To determine the potential involvement of the pathways leading to PGE2 synthesis in psychiatric disease, immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were performed to measure regional expression of the cyclooxygenases (COX) and one of the terminal PGE2 synthases (PGES) in postmortem tissue provided by The Stanley Medical Research Institute. For normal, bipolar, depressed, and schizophrenic subjects, COX-1 and COX-2 protein levels did not differ across region and patient populations. In contrast, there was a significant effect of diagnosis on cytosolic PGES (cPGES) protein levels in the frontal cortex, with remarkable decreases observed in all psychiatric groups relative to normal tissue (P < 0.05). Significant reduction of cPGES expression was also found in the temporal cortex of bipolar subjects. Evaluation of medicated vs. non-medicated subjects revealed a significant effect of medication on cPGES expression in the frontal cortex of bipolar, but not depressed or schizophrenic subjects. These novel findings further support hypotheses of abnormalities in fatty acid and phospholipid metabolism in regions associated with psychiatric disease.