Abstract
BackgroundRecent studies show that oxidative stress is associated with the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. There are two major types of antioxidant systems in vivo, namely enzymatic antioxidants and non-enzymatic antioxidants. This study investigated differences of non-enzymatic antioxidants between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.MethodsPeripheral UA, ALB, and TBIL of 107 schizophrenic patients in the acute stage and 101 in the remission stage were measured respectively, so were 273 healthy controls.ResultsThe levels of UA (P = 0.020) and TBIL (P < 0.001) of schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were higher than those of healthy controls, while the level of ALB (P < 0.001) was lower. Similar results were detected form schizophrenic patients in the remission stage. Schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were divided into antipsychotics-use subgroup (n = 56) and antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup (n = 51). The level of UA (P = 0.001) in the antipsychotics-use subgroup was higher than that in the antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup, while the level of TBIL (P = 0.002) was lower than that in the antipsychotics-naïve/free subgroup. Seventy-seven schizophrenic patients in the acute stage were followed up, and there was no significant difference in the level of UA before and after treatment, but levels of ALB (P < 0.001) and TBIL (P < 0.001) decreased significantly after the treatment.ConclusionThis study demonstrated that the dysfunction of the peripheral non-enzymatic anti-oxidation system might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
Highlights
Recent studies show that oxidative stress is associated with the pathogenesis of schizophrenia
schizophrenic patients in the acute stage (SCZ-AS) vs. healthy controls (HC) Compared with the HC group, the levels of uric acid (UA) (t = 3.170, P = 0.020) and total bilirubin (TBIL)(t = 8.166, P
There was no significant difference in the level of UA between males in the HC and SCZ-AS group
Summary
Recent studies show that oxidative stress is associated with the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This study investigated differences of non-enzymatic antioxidants between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. The pathogenesis of schizophrenia (SCZ) remains unclear. It has been proved that biological, psychological, and social factors contribute to the pathogenesis of SCZ. Previous studies suggested that oxidative stress was related to the pathogenesis of SCZ [1]. Oxidative stress was defined as the imbalance between reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) and antioxidant protection systems. Antioxidant refers to any compound which can lower oxidative stress by depleting molecular oxygen or decreasing its local concentration, removing pro-oxidative metal ions, trapping aggressive reactive oxygen species, scavenging chain-initiating radicals, breaking the chain of a radical sequence or quenching singlet oxygen [4, 5].
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