BACKGROUND: Tardive dyskinesia is a disorder characterized by involuntary muscle movements that occur as a complication of long-term treatment with antipsychotic drugs. It has been suggested to be related to a malfunctioning of the indirect pathway of the motor part of the cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuit, which may be caused by oxidative stress-induced neurotoxicity.
METHODS: The purpose of our study was to investigate the possible association between phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate-5-kinase type IIa (PIP5K2A) function and tardive dyskinesia in 491 Caucasian patients with schizophrenia from 3 different psychiatric institutes in West Siberia. The Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale was used to assess tardive dyskinesia. Individuals were genotyped for 3 single nucleotide polymorphisms in PIP5K2A gene: rs10828317, rs746203, and rs8341.
RESULTS: A significant association was established between the functional mutation N251S-polymorphism of the PIP5K2A gene (rs10828317) and tardive dyskinesia, while the other 2 examined nonfunctional single nucleotide polymorphisms were not related.
CONCLUSIONS: We conclude from this association that PIP5K2A is possibly involved in a mechanism protecting against tardive dyskinesia-inducing neurotoxicity. This corresponds to our hypothesis that tardive dyskinesia is related to neurotoxicity at striatal indirect pathway medium-sized spiny neurons.

Histamine H3 receptors (H3Rs) co-localize with dopamine (DA) D1 receptors (D1Rs) on striatal medium spiny neurons and functionally antagonize D1R-mediated responses. The intra-striatal administration of D1R agonists reduces DA release whereas D1R antagonists have the opposite effect. In this work, a microdialysis method was used to study the effect of co-activating D1 and H3 receptors on the release of DA from the rat dorsal striatum. Infusion of the D1R agonist SKF-38393 (0.5 and 1 μM) significantly reduced DA release (26-58%), and this effect was prevented by co-administration of the H3R agonist immepip (10 μM). In turn, the effect of immepip was blocked by the H3R antagonist thioperamide (10 μM). Our results indicate that co-stimulation of post-synaptic D1 and H3 receptors may indirectly regulate basal DA release in the rat striatum and provide in vivo evidence for a functional interaction between D1 and H3 receptors in the basal ganglia.