Recent evidence suggest that there is a bioenergetics dysfunction characterized by abnormal glucose handling and mitochondrial deficit, in the brain of people with schizophrenia. We identified that ketogenic diet, which provides alternative fuel to glucose for bioenergetic processes in the brain, normalises schizophrenia-like behaviours in translationally relevant pharmacological, genetic and neurodevelopmental mouse models. We have obtained preliminary evidence that the ketogenic substance beta-hydroxybutyrate or faecal microbiota transfer from mice fed with ketogenic diet exert similar beneficial effects in mice maintained on standard diet. This talk will also provide some mechanistic insights on how ketogenic diet/ketosis may exert its therapeutic effect in schizophrenia.

References:
1. Sarnyai, Z., Kraeuter, A.K., Palmer, C. Ketogenic diet for schizophrenia: Clinical implication. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 2019 Sep;32(5):394-401.
2. Kraeuter, AK, van den Buuse, M., Sarnyai, Z. Ketogenic diet and olanzapine treatment alone and in combination reduce a pharmacologically-induced prepulse inhibition deficit in female mice. Schizophrenia Research 2019 Aug 9. pii: S0920-9964(19)30344-5. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.08.002. [Epub ahead of print]
3. Kraeuter, AK, van den Buuse, M, Sarnyai, Z. Ketogenic diet prevents impaired prepulse inhibition of startle in an acute NMDA receptor hypofunction model of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 2019 Apr;206:244-250.
4. Kraeuter, AK, Loxton, H., Costa Lima, B., Rudd, D., Sarnyai, Z. Ketogenic diet reverses behavioral abnormalities in an acute NMDA receptor hypofunction model of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Res. 2015 Dec;169(1-3):491-3.