Chronic Effects of Atypic Antipsychotics on Mice Isolated Vas Deferens Contractility: An In vitro Study

Abstract

Aims: Antipsychotic drugs are known to be commonly associated with sexual dysfunction. The aim of this study to investigate the effects of sertindole, asenapine and ziprasidone on serotonin (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and potassium chloride (KCl)-induced contractions of the isolated vas deferens in mice.
 Study design: All the drugs were administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) in a volume of 0.1 ml per 10 g body weight of mice.
 Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacology, Kocaeli University, Animal Research Center, between May 2018 and August 2019.
 Methodology: The mice were randomly divided into groups (n=7) as follows: saline; sertindole 1.3 mg/kg; sertindole 2.5 mg/kg; asenapine 0.05 mg/kg; asenapine 0.075 mg/kg; ziprasidone 1 mg/kg; ziprasidone 2 mg/kg once daily for 21 days. Mice receiving only the vehicle (0.9% saline, i.p.) served as control group. After 21 days of treatment, the effects of drugs were investigated on 5-HT, NA, ATP and KCl-induced contractions of isolated vas deferens.
 Results: The results showed that serotonin-induced contractions of vas deferens were affected by the chronic treatments of sertindole, asenapine and ziprasidone, however these drugs had no significant effect on NA, ATP, and KCl-induced contractions of mice vas deferens.
 Conclusion: Serotonergic receptors may contribute to changes in vas deferens contractions in mice with chronic treatment of sertindole, asenapine and ziprasidone. Thus, our results may explain one of the causes of sexual dysfunction of sertindole, asenapine and ziprasidone.