Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Mol Psychiatry. 2012 May;17(5):494-502. doi: 10.1038/mp.2011.42. Epub 2011 Apr 12.
Biomarkers are now used in many areas of medicine but are still lacking for psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia (SCZ). We have used a multiplex molecular profiling approach to measure serum concentrations of 181 proteins and small molecules in 250 first and recent onset SCZ, 35 major depressive disorder (MDD), 32 euthymic bipolar disorder (BPD), 45 Asperger syndrome and 280 control subjects. Preliminary analysis resulted in identification of a signature comprised of 34 analytes in a cohort of closely matched SCZ (n=71) and control (n=59) subjects. Partial least squares discriminant analysis using this signature gave a separation of 60-75% of SCZ subjects from controls across five independent cohorts. The same analysis also gave a separation of ~50% of MDD patients and 10-20% of BPD and Asperger syndrome subjects from controls. These results demonstrate for the first time that a biological signature for SCZ can be identified in blood serum. This study lays the groundwork for development of a diagnostic test that can be used as an aid for distinguishing SCZ subjects from healthy controls and from those affected by related psychiatric illnesses with overlapping symptoms.
生物标志物现在被广泛应用于医学的多个领域，但在精神疾病如精神分裂症（SCZ）等方面仍存在不足。我们采用了一种多重分子谱分析方法，测量了 250 名首发和近期精神分裂症患者、35 名重度抑郁症患者、32 名缓解期双相情感障碍患者、45 名阿斯伯格综合征患者和 280 名对照者的血清中 181 种蛋白质和小分子的浓度。初步分析确定了一个由 34 种分析物组成的特征，在一组匹配良好的精神分裂症（n=71）和对照组（n=59）中得到了验证。使用该特征的偏最小二乘判别分析在五个独立的队列中实现了 60-75%的精神分裂症患者与对照组的分离。同样的分析还将约 50%的重度抑郁症患者和 10-20%的双相情感障碍和阿斯伯格综合征患者与对照组进行了区分。这些结果首次证明了可以在血清中识别出精神分裂症的生物学特征。这项研究为开发一种诊断测试奠定了基础，该测试可以作为区分精神分裂症患者与健康对照者以及与具有重叠症状的相关精神疾病患者的辅助手段。
