Schizophrenia and Alarmins

Abstract

Schizophrenia, consisting of a group of severe psychiatric disorders with a complex etiology, is a leading cause of disability globally. Due to the lack of objective indicators, accurate diagnosis and selection of effective treatments for schizophrenia remain challenging. The association between schizophrenia and alarmins levels has been proposed for many years, but without solid evidence. Alarmins are prestored molecules that do not require processing and can be released upon cell death or damage, making them an ideal candidate for an early initiator of inflammation. Immunological biomarkers seem to be related to disease progression and treatment effectiveness. Several studies suggest strong associations among the high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1), interleukin-1α, interleukin-33, S100B, heat-shock proteins, and uric acid with schizophrenic disorders. The purpose of this review is to discuss the evidence of central and peripheral immune findings in schizophrenia, their potential causes, and the effects of immunomodulatory therapies on symptoms and outline potential applications of these markers in managing the illness. Although there are currently no effective markers for diagnosing or predicting treatment effects in patients with schizophrenia, we believe that screening immune-inflammatory biomarkers that are closely related to the pathological mechanism of schizophrenia can be used for early clinical identification, diagnosis, and treatment of schizophrenia, which may lead to more effective treatment options for people with schizophrenia.

Investigating amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and possible links with cognitive impairment in childhood and adolescence onset schizophrenia: a correlation study

“…Schizophrenia, as a mental disorder, still lacks a well-characterized etiology. Research has defined it as a neurodevelopmental disorder with a complex genetic basis ( 1 , 2 ). Individuals with schizophrenia often exhibit cognitive dysfunction and negative symptoms that are frequently resistant to therapeutic interventions ( 3 ).…”

Advanced Biomarkers of Hepatotoxicity in Psychiatry: A Narrative Review and Recommendations for New Psychoactive Substances

“…Huan Ma reviewed the topic of alarmin levels, including HMGB1, in schizophrenic patients, and he indicates that studies suggest strong links between the HMGB1 protein and schizophrenic disorders. The author of that paper indicates that HMGB1 levels were elevated in schizophrenic patients compared with healthy individuals [98]. Al-Dujaili et al demonstrated that serum HMGB1 levels were significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia than in a control group of healthy individuals [99].…”

Deciphering the landscape of lncRNA-driven ceRNA network in schizophrenia etiology

“…Several lines of evidence have already shown a close association of ceRNA networks with several forms of cancer but very little is known for schizophrenia [32]. As substantial evidence of an altered immune landscape in schizophrenia has accumulated [33][34][35] and recent research has solidified the probable role of lncRNAs in orchestrating an altered immune landscape in the disease [36], we narrowed down the analysis to focus on identifying immune/ inflammatory signals by using a relevant expression dataset from publicly available database with the propensity to identify these peripheral signals, if any and performed bioinformatics analyses to highlight the lncRNA-associated ceRNA networks. It is hypothesized that such strategies may potentially reveal putative novel pathways and/or give credence to erstwhile proposed theories for disease etiology.…”