PCP Discovery May Also Aid Schizophrenics

Researchers have identified the brain receptors for the widely abused drug PCP, a breakthrough that they say could lead to the development of drugs to treat both PCP abusers and schizophrenics.

University of Maryland scientists, who have done research on phencyclidine since 1980, say they have pinpointed the biochemical mechanism through which the hallucinogen disrupts the nervous system and causes irrational and sometimes violent behavior.

“We can correlate cellular activity at the molecular level with behavior in man,” said Dr. Mordecai P. Blaustein, physiology chairman and head of the research project. “I can’t begin to tell you all the doors it opens.”

Schizophrenia’s Causes

The scientists believe that their findings may shed some light on the causes of schizophrenia, which afflicts more than 2 million Americans, because PCP psychosis closely resembles the mental illness.

The findings of Blaustein and his associates, Dieter K. Bartschat and Roger G. Sorensen, are described in the January issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists found that PCP binds with certain protein molecules, blocking potassium channels in a nerve-cell membrane. The PCP then causes the release of large numbers of neurotransmitters, which are the brain’s chemical messengers. This disrupts the normal transmission of a nerve impulse.

Rats’ Brain Cells

In the tests, the scientists took the brain cells of recently killed rats and spun them in a centrifuge to separate the nerve terminals. They added PCP, which had been acquired by special license, and tracked the movement of radioactive potassium 42 and rubidium 86 through potassium channels in the membranes of the nerve terminals.

Thomas L. O’Donohue, a pharmacologist with the National Institutes of Health, said the research could lead to the development of a class of anti-psychotic drugs that lacked the serious side effects of the drugs now used to treat schizophrenia.