Event Abstract Back to Event Increased levels of IL-6, TNF-a, MIF, IL-8, and MCP-1 in schizophrenia Roksana Zakharyan1*, Sofi Atshemyan1 and Anna Boyajyan1 1 Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA, Armenia Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric disease with chronic symptoms and significant impairment in psychosocial functioning. Although numerous antipsychotic drugs have been developed, the main symptoms of this disease are still untreated. Inflammatory and immune response regulating proteins are thought to play an important role in the generation and progression of schizophrenia. However, recent findings on the role of proinflammatory and chemotactic cytokines in schizophrenia remain controversial and required further clarification. In this study we evaluated the levels of the IL-6, TNF-a, MIF, IL-8, and MCP-1 in patients with paranoid schizophrenia and age-, sex-matched healthy volunteers (controls) using enzyme-linked immunsorbent assay. According to the results obtained, all studied cytokines were overexpressed in the blood of schizophrenia patients when compared to controls (p<0.0001). No significant difference in the levels of cytokines between neuroleptic-treated and non-treated patients was detected (p>0.05). These findings suggested that schizophrenia is characterized by upregulation of chemo-cytokine network that can be further used for the development of cytokine-targeted therapeutic approaches. Keywords: Association, blood levels, Cytokines, Inflammation, Schizophrenia Conference: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI), Milan, Italy, 22 Aug - 27 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Immune-mediated disease pathogenesis Citation: Zakharyan R, Atshemyan S and Boyajyan A (2013). Increased levels of IL-6, TNF-a, MIF, IL-8, and MCP-1 in schizophrenia. Front. Immunol. Conference Abstract: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fimmu.2013.02.00354 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Mar 2013; Published Online: 22 Aug 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Roksana Zakharyan, Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia, r_zakharyan@mb.sci.am Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Roksana Zakharyan Sofi Atshemyan Anna Boyajyan Google Roksana Zakharyan Sofi Atshemyan Anna Boyajyan Google Scholar Roksana Zakharyan Sofi Atshemyan Anna Boyajyan PubMed Roksana Zakharyan Sofi Atshemyan Anna Boyajyan Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.