Segura Àlex-González, Prohens Llucia, Mezquida Gisela, Amoretti Silvia, Bioque Miquel, Ribeiro María, Gurriarán-Bas Xaquin, Rementería Lide, Berge Daniel, Rodriguez-Jimenez Roberto, Roldán Alexandra, Pomarol-Clotet Edith, Ibáñez Angela, Usall Judith, García-Portilla Maria Paz, Cuesta Manuel J, Parellada Mara, González-Pinto Ana, Berrocoso Esther, Bernardo Miquel, Mas Sergi
Department of Clinical Foundations, Pharmacology Unit, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Institut d'investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPs), Barcelona, Spain.
Schizophrenia (Heidelb). 2022 Jul 22;8(1):61. doi: 10.1038/s41537-022-00268-2.
The main objective of the present study was to investigate the association between several epigenetic clocks, covering different aspects of aging, with schizophrenia relapse evaluated over a 3-year follow-up period in a cohort of ninety-one first-episode schizophrenia patients. Genome-wide DNA methylation was profiled and four epigenetic clocks, including epigenetic clocks of chronological age, mortality and telomere length were calculated. Patients that relapsed during the follow-up showed epigenetic acceleration of the telomere length clock (p = 0.030). Shorter telomere length was associated with cognitive performance (working memory, r = 0.31 p = 0.015; verbal fluency, r = 0.28 p = 0.028), but no direct effect of cognitive function or symptom severity on relapse was detected. The results of the present study suggest that epigenetic age acceleration could be involved in the clinical course of schizophrenia and could be a useful marker of relapse when measured in remission stages.
本研究的主要目的是在91例首发精神分裂症患者队列中，调查涵盖衰老不同方面的几种表观遗传时钟与3年随访期内精神分裂症复发之间的关联。对全基因组DNA甲基化进行了分析，并计算了四个表观遗传时钟，包括按时间年龄、死亡率和端粒长度的表观遗传时钟。随访期间复发的患者表现出端粒长度时钟的表观遗传加速（p = 0.030）。较短的端粒长度与认知表现相关（工作记忆，r = 0.31，p = 0.015；语言流畅性，r = 0.28，p = 0.028），但未检测到认知功能或症状严重程度对复发有直接影响。本研究结果表明，表观遗传年龄加速可能参与精神分裂症的临床病程，并且在缓解期进行测量时可能是复发的有用标志物。
