A study of anti-gliadin antibodies in first-episode patients with schizophrenia among a Chinese population

Abstract

A recent study suggested that digestion-resistant peptides derived from wheat gluten (mainly gliadin) could induce the secretion of anti-gliadin IgG antibodies in patients with schizophrenia. This research was then designed to replicate this initial finding in 134 drug-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 160 healthy controls. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed in-house with 8 gliadin-derived peptide antigens to test anti-gliadin IgG antibodies in the circulation. The results showed that schizophrenia patients had significantly higher levels of plasma anti-AL2G2 IgG and anti-ABO3a IgG than healthy controls. Based on the specificity of 95%, anti-AL2G2 IgG assay had a sensitivity of 12.7% and anti-ABO3a IgG assay had a sensitivity of 17.2% for anti-ABO3a IgG assay. Increased levels of anti-AL2G2 and anti-ABC3a IgG antibodies were not correlated with total IgG levels in either the patient group or the control group. In conclusion, circulating IgG against AL2G2 and ABO3a may be useful biomarkers for identification of a gluten-sensitive subgroup of schizophrenia in the Chinese population although the present results are rather different from the work performed in a British population.