There are many different pharmaceuticals that have different effects within the body. These pharmaceuticals are many different elements. The simple pharmaceutical though is the ion Lithium. Lithium has many different effects on the brain. It covers a wide variety of disease and it has many different uses. The main function of Lithium is that it is neuroprotective. This means that it lessens the oxidative stress and causes less cell apoptosis to occur. There are multiple theories that try to explain the pathway that Lithium has in the brain. It is also involved in many different pathways with in the brain. One of the pathways that Lithium blocks is the IP3 pathway. In this path way Lithium blocks IP3, which is leads to the prevention of apoptosis. This is because IP3 signaling is linked to p25 and Cdk5. Both of these are factors in the cell that leads to cell death. Another function of Lithium is to block the NMDA-R receptor. This receptor triggers a signaling cascade that will eventually lead to cell death. Another function of Lithium is to activate cyclic AMP. Cyclic AMP will then activate PKA, which will block the GSK-3 pathway. Lithium can also directly block GSK-3. By inhibiting GSK-3, lithium is able to promote CREB, which is a transcription factor. This will promote transcription activity of anti-apoptosis proteins. This will lead to more cells surviving within the brain.
With all the pathways that Lithium is involved in, it can be used to treat many different neurological diseases. One of the diseases that it is used the most to treat is bipolar disorder. To treat this disorder, Lithium acts on the GSK-3 pathway. Lithium only seems to treat the manic stage of bipolar disorder. Another neurological disorder that can be treated with Lithium is strokes. Lithium can be used as both a preventive and post stroke treatment. If Lithium is administer after a stroke has occurred it has to be within 12 hours with daily injects for two weeks after. This is because the effects will not be as beneficial after this time period. A third neurological disorder that can be treated by the use of Lithium is depression. This seems weird in bi polar disorder lithium is given to treat the manic stages. Lithium is given for depression, but it is a last case scenario. It is only used if there are not any other drugs are able to treat depression. With depression treated by Lithium, it is thought that Lithium acts on the NMDA-R receptors.
One of the most interesting areas of research with Lithium is the possible treatment of fetal alcohol syndrome. Lithium decreases the amount of oxidative stress that is placed on the brain when alcohol, specifically ethanol, is in someone’s system. So far this has only been tested with mice in laboratories. One set of mice were able to birth a set of offspring without any alcohol. Another set of mice were given alcohol when they were pregnant. The offspring of these two sets of mice were then measured to see the cognitive differences. Once this was complete, the researchers then gave alcohol to the mice and lithium. The mice then birthed their offspring and the cognitive abilities were measured. In the end, the offspring that were given lithium when alcohol was in the system performed better than the ones that were not given Lithium. This showed that in mice, Lithium was able to decrease the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome. The problem with this though is that this may give mothers an excuse to drink while they are pregnant and what would happen if they forgot to take the Lithium pill?
What Can't Lithium do?
