Psychiatry Research Center, Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China.
J Psychiatr Res. 2012 Aug;46(8):1093-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.04.026. Epub 2012 May 28.
Schizophrenia is associated with various abnormalities in the immune system including elevated levels of Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a potent inflammatory cytokine in T-helper 1 (Th1) responses. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical significance of serum IL-18 levels in various stages of schizophrenia.
We measured serum IL-18 levels using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from 78 never-medicated first-episode schizophrenia, 79 medicated chronic schizophrenia and 78 healthy control subjects. The symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
The chronic patients had significantly greater serum IL-18 levels than both first-episode patients and controls. Serum IL-18 was also positively correlated with the PANSS general psychopathology subscore in chronic schizophrenic patients.
Our results showed elevated IL-18 pathway activity may be involved in the psychopathology of schizophrenia.
精神分裂症与免疫系统的各种异常有关，包括白细胞介素-18（IL-18）水平升高，白细胞介素-18 是 T 辅助 1（Th1）反应中的一种有效炎症细胞因子。本研究旨在评估血清白细胞介素-18 水平在精神分裂症各个阶段的临床意义。
我们使用夹心酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）法从 78 例未经治疗的首发精神分裂症患者、79 例药物治疗的慢性精神分裂症患者和 78 例健康对照者中测量血清白细胞介素-18 水平。采用阳性和阴性症状量表（PANSS）评估精神分裂症的症状。
慢性患者的血清白细胞介素-18 水平明显高于首发患者和对照组。在慢性精神分裂症患者中，血清白细胞介素-18 水平与 PANSS 一般精神病学评分呈正相关。
我们的研究结果表明，白细胞介素-18 途径的活性升高可能与精神分裂症的精神病理学有关。
