Abstract
Background: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder, which has a major impact on the quality of life and imposes a huge burden on the family. However, the pathogenesis of schizophrenia remains unclear and there are no specific biomarkers. Therefore, we intend to explore whether cf-DNA levels are related to the occurrence and development of schizophrenia.Methods: We analyzed and compared the concentration of cf-DNA in 174 SZ patients and 100 matched healthy controls by using quantitative real-time PCR by amplifying the Alu repeats.Results: We found that cf-DNA levels in peripheral blood reliably distinguished SZ patients from healthy controls (P < 0.05). The ROC analysis also supports the above conclusion. By tracking the absolute concentration of serum cf-DNA in primary cases, we found a distinct increase before treatment with antipsychotics, which decreased progressively after treatment.Conclusions: The present work indicates that cf-DNA may improve the efficiency of disease diagnosis, and the level of cf-DNA plays a predictive role in the development of schizophrenia. By evaluating the level of cf-DNA, we might play a certain role in a more reasonable and standardized clinical treatment of schizophrenia.
Highlights
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a major public problem that impairs brain function and affects approximately 1% of the world population [1,2,3]
By trcking the 57 newly diagnosed SZ patients, we found the level of Alu before treatment was higher than the level at post treatment
To investigate the characteristics of serum Alu as a potential marker for SZ, Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed on data from all participants, including 174 SZ patients and 100 healthy controls
Summary
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a major public problem that impairs brain function and affects approximately 1% of the world population [1,2,3]. Different from many other diseases, the exact etiology and pathogenesis of SZ remains elusive. Diagnoses are still determined by the medical history together with the mental symptoms and disease progression. No definite laboratory examination or laboratory test has been demonstrated to support an accurate clinical diagnosis. Such diagnoses are subject to subjective factors and higher requirements for doctor’s clinical experience. As potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets have yet to be established [4], the development of biomarkers to improve diagnosis and prognosis is an urgent task. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder, which has a major impact on the quality of life and imposes a huge burden on the family. The pathogenesis of schizophrenia remains unclear and there are no specific biomarkers. We intend to explore whether cf-DNA levels are related to the occurrence and development of schizophrenia
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