P165 Altered blood plasma levels of cytokine in schizophrenia

Abstract

One of the severe mental diseases, schizophrenia, is characterized with multifactorial nature and atrong genetic background [1]. Low-grade inflammatory processes have been shown to contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia [2]. However, recent findings on the role of several cytokines and their genetic variants in schizophrenia are still controversial [3], [4], [5], [6]. In this study, we evaluated the association of proinflammatory and chemotactic cytokine levels with schizophrenia. Enzyme-linked immunsorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin (IL)-8 cytokines in the blood plasma of patients with schizophrenia (neuroleptic-treated patients n = 120, neuroleptic-free patients n = 10) and healthy subjects (controls, n = 120). We found 1.16 times higher TNF-α plasma levels in neuroleptic-treated patients compared to healthy subjects (p < 0.0001). Further, TNF-α levels were higher in neuroleptic-free patients when compared to controls (1.22 times in average, p = 0.025). However, no significant difference in TNF-α levels between neuroleptic-treated and neuroleptic-free subjects was found. Concerning IL-8, the increased levels of this chemokine in neuroleptic-free and neuroleptic-treated patients compared to healthy subjects were found (in average 3.85 and 5.66 times, respectively, p < 0.0001). Importantly, no significant difference in IL-8 plasma levels between neuroleptic-treated and neuroleptic-free patients was detected. Our results indicated altered IL-8 and TNF-α plasma levels in schizophrenia suggesting that these cytokines might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.