Basic Cognitive Architecture, Systemic Inflammation, and Immune Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Abstract

The aims of the project were to study the architecture of the brain's neural networks in the process of perceiving individual stimuli that are personally significant, to evaluate the main parameters of immunity and systemic inflammation, and to relate those to brain damage markers and patterns of cognitive-affective disorders in patients with schizophrenia. Materials and Methods. The study involved 35 patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 17 people without cognitive impairment. Clinical information about patients was obtained from the database created in the Alekseev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No.1, Moscow Department of Health. The immunological arm of the study included the determination of key cytokines, neurotrophic factors, circulating immune complexes, C-reactive protein, cortisol, and immunoglobulins in the blood serum of patients. To study the cognitive functions, original methods of selecting the stimuli and recording the vegetative reactions were used; those allowed for identifying the architecture of neural networks involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Cortisol and cytokines in schizophrenia: A scoping review

“… IGF-1 TNF- α TNF-β IL-1β IL-2 IL-4 IL-5 IL-8 IL-10 IL-12 Deficits of theory of mind and emotional perception in participants with first episode psychosis, chronic SZ group participants and high-risk subjects compared to controls IL-4 levels significantly higher in the UHR group compared to participants in the FEP, chronic SZ and healthy controls group; No effect of antipsychotic treatment on social cognition. [ 40 ] n = 35 patients with SZ n = 17 healthy controls Study evaluated the main parameters of immunity and systemic inflammation in relation to brain damage markers and patterns of cognitive-affective in patients with SZ. IL-6 IL-8 IL-10 IFN-γ TNF-α IL-1β IL-1RA An increase in the main markers of systemic inflammatory response was found in patients with SZ: cortisol, pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IFN-γ, as well as C-reactive protein, were significantly increased compared with the control group, and normal values.…”

“…Higher levels of cortisol were found in individuals with paranoid schizophrenia compared to individuals without cognitive impairment by Ref. [ 40 ] as well as [ 37 ]; where cortisol levels increased in individuals with schizophrenia after a 2-week antipsychotics wash-out period.Significant interactions between cortisol and cytokines were noted by Refs. [ 37 , 38 , 30 , 42 ]; and [ 35 ].…”

“…However, the direction of correlation and inflammatory markers included differed. [ 38 ] found a positive correlation between cortisol and IL-6, [ 40 ] found an increase in cortisol, IL-6, IL-8, and IFN-γ, while [ 42 ] identified a significant interaction between cortisol, TNF-α and IL-8.…”