Increased S100B blood levels in unmedicated and treated schizophrenic patients are correlated with negative symptomatology

Abstract

Keywords: nerve tissue protein S100; schizophrenia; antipsychotic agents; negative symptomatology; psychiatric status S100B, a calcium-binding protein produced by astroglial cells, is a marker of astroglial cellular integrity. It has been shown to be increased in acute brain damage and neurodegeneration. A recent study showed increased S100B levels in medicated acutely psychotic patients with schizophrenia. The study presented here included 26 drug-free patients with acute schizophrenia and 26 matched healthy controls. S100B blood concentrations were determined using a quantitative immunoassay upon admission and after 6 weeks of neuroleptic treatment. The PANSS was used to investigate psychopathology. Unmedicated schizophrenic patients showed significantly increased S100B levels compared to matched healthy controls. After 6 weeks of treatment, 11 patients showed normal S100B levels while in 15 patients the levels remained increased. These patients showed significantly higher PANSS negative scores upon admission and after 6 weeks of treatment. Schizophrenic patients display a loss of astroglial integrity which is not caused by neuroleptic medication. Continuously increased S100B levels are associated with negative symptomatology. Molecular Psychiatry (2001) 6, 445-449.

Serum S100B is increased during early treatment with antipsychotics and in deficit schizophrenia

“…Thus, one may hypothesize that antipsychotics increase S100B during the first weeks of treatment, whereas in the long run, after more than 5 weeks, they decrease S100B, at least in patients with a small amount of negative symptoms. According to this hypothesis, Wiesmann et al (1999) and our study measured elevated S100B during the first weeks of treatment, whereas Gattaz et al (2000) and Rothermundt et al (2001) measured decreased levels of S100B after more than 5 weeks of treatment, at least in patient subgroups.…”

“…In our study, almost all patients were treated on an average of 3 weeks before the determination of S100B. Rothermundt et al (2001) showed that treatment with antipsychotics for 6 weeks reduced S100B in this subgroup of patients, which had less negative symptoms, whereas S100B was unchanged in the subgroup with more negative symptoms at admission and after 6 weeks treatment. Thus, one may hypothesize that antipsychotics increase S100B during the first weeks of treatment, whereas in the long run, after more than 5 weeks, they decrease S100B, at least in patients with a small amount of negative symptoms.…”

“…Increased (Wiesmann et al, 1999) and decreased levels (Gattaz et al, 2000) of S100B were reported in medicated schizophrenic patients in comparison with healthy controls. Further, Rothermundt et al (2001) showed that treatment with antipsychotics for 6 weeks reduced S100B in this subgroup of patients, which had less negative symptoms, whereas S100B was unchanged in the subgroup with more negative symptoms at admission and after 6 weeks treatment. Therefore, we investigated the impact of medication on serum levels of S100B in a larger sample of schizophrenic patients.…”

“…It is known that serum levels of S100B are elevated in untreated patients with schizophrenia in comparison with healthy controls (Lara et al, 2001;Rothermundt et al, 2001). However, the impact of antipsychotic medication on S100B is controversial.…”

“…Therefore, we investigated the impact of medication on serum levels of S100B in a larger sample of schizophrenic patients. Negative symptoms that occur especially in the deficit syndrome influence S100B (Kirkpatrick et al, 2001;Rothermundt et al, 2001). Thus, the deficit syndrome was included as an additional factor in the analysis.…”