Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019 Oct;108:110-117. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.06.006. Epub 2019 Jun 12.
Multiple lines of evidence indicate that patients with chronic schizophrenia (SCZ) display executive dysfunction across the illness course. However, the potential molecular pathophysiologic mechanisms remain poorly elucidated. Neurodevelopmental changes caused by alterations of inflammatory mediators and neurotrophins have been shown to occur in the earliest stages of SCZ, and be associated with executive dysfunction (ED) in SCZ. Therefore, the current study was to investigate whether the interplay between BDNF and inflammatory mediators was involved in the disruption of executive function of long-term hospitalized patients with chronic SCZ. Serum cytokines and BDNF levels were measured in 112 long-term hospitalized patients with chronic SCZ and 44 healthy normal controls. Executive functions were assessed by verbal fluency tests (VFT), the Stroop word-color test (Stroop), and the Wisconsin card sorting tests (WCST).The results showed that the patients had higher IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, but lower TNF-α and BDNF compared to control subjects. In the patient group, BDNF was positively associated with IL-2 and IL-8 levels, while lower BDNF levels were correlated with ED measured by VFT and WCST tests. Multiple stepwise regression analyses confirmed that BDNF × IL-8 and BDNF × TNF-α were factors influencing the total score of VFT, while BDNF × IL-8 and BDNF × TNF-α were recognized as influencing factors for WCST scores. Our results suggest complex interactions between BDNF and cytokines were involved in the pathophysiology of executive function impairments in patients with SCZ.
有多项证据表明，慢性精神分裂症（SCZ）患者在整个病程中都存在执行功能障碍。然而，潜在的分子病理生理机制仍未得到充分阐明。炎症介质和神经营养因子改变引起的神经发育变化已在 SCZ 的早期阶段发生，并与 SCZ 的执行功能障碍（ED）有关。因此，本研究旨在探讨 BDNF 和炎症介质之间的相互作用是否参与了长期住院的慢性 SCZ 患者执行功能的破坏。测量了 112 名长期住院的慢性 SCZ 患者和 44 名健康正常对照者的血清细胞因子和 BDNF 水平。通过言语流畅性测试（VFT）、Stroop 字-色测试（Stroop）和威斯康星卡片分类测试（WCST）评估执行功能。结果显示，与对照组相比，患者的 IL-2、IL-6 和 IL-8 水平较高，而 TNF-α和 BDNF 水平较低。在患者组中，BDNF 与 IL-2 和 IL-8 水平呈正相关，而较低的 BDNF 水平与 VFT 和 WCST 测试测量的 ED 相关。多元逐步回归分析证实，BDNF×IL-8 和 BDNF×TNF-α是影响 VFT 总评分的因素，而 BDNF×IL-8 和 BDNF×TNF-α是影响 WCST 评分的因素。我们的研究结果表明，BDNF 和细胞因子之间的复杂相互作用参与了 SCZ 患者执行功能障碍的病理生理学。
