The Value of Serum Cell-Free DNA Levels in Patients With Schizophrenia

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.

Circulating Cell-Free DNA Levels in Psychiatric Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…For the same reason, one report on cf-gDNA was excluded from the DDs group [ 36 ], as the remaining studies analyzed cf-mtDNA. Ultimately, the following numbers of reports were included in the meta-analysis: schizophrenia, 8 [ 24 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]; BD, 4 [ 25 , 35 , 43 , 44 ]; DDs, 5 [ 35 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. The total number of individual studies included in the meta-analysis was sixteen because some reports considered several diseases simultaneously.…”

“…Therefore, we divided all reports depending on the type of analyzed cfDNA. As a result, the total cfDNA was investigated in 6 studies [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ] and cf-gDNA in three reports in the case of schizophrenia [ 24 , 36 , 42 ]. There were insufficient data for a meta-analysis of cf-mtDNA in schizophrenia (only two studies) [ 34 , 35 ].…”

“…extracted data from the retrieved articles. Some studies [ 24 , 25 ] did not have all of the necessary data for the statistical analysis (the arithmetic mean and standard deviation were missing). The required data for these articles were predicted based on the median and interquartile range, according to the methodology described by Weir et al [ 26 ].…”

In Vitro Analysis of Biological Activity of Circulating Cell-Free DNA Isolated from Blood Plasma of Schizophrenic Patients and Healthy Controls

“…The changes in c-cfDNA properties in schizophrenia have also been studied. The total c-cfDNA concentration in the blood of patients from China and Russia was investigated [ 6 , 7 , 48 , 49 ]. All the studies reported a two- to three-fold c-cfDNA increase in SZ patients.…”

In Vitro Analysis of Biological Activity of Circulating Cell-Free DNA Isolated from Blood Plasma of Schizophrenic Patients and Healthy Controls—Part 2: Adaptive Response

“…The cfDNA content substantially increases in case of pregnancy pathology, tumor, critical state, affective or physical stress, and during intensive physical loads [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The cfDNA is also elevated in mental disorders, in particular in schizophrenia patients [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”