Ballesteros Alejandro, Flores-Lopez María, Sánchez-Torres Ana M, Gil-Berrozpe Gustavo J, Moreno-Izco Lucía, Gavito Ana, Serrano Antonia, Rodríguez de Fonseca Fernando, Cuesta Manuel J
Bioaraba, Nuevas Terapias en Salud Mental, Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba Mental Health Network, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
Grupo de Neuropsicofarmacología, Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Salud Mental, Instituto IBIMA, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Malaga, Spain.
J Clin Psychiatry. 2025 Jul 9;86(3):24m15486. doi: 10.4088/JCP.24m15486.
Cognitive deficits are a core feature of early stages of schizophrenia. However, according to neurodevelopmental models, the extent to which chemokines and growth factors are involved in cognitive function remains debatable. We aimed to investigate whether homeostatic/inflammatory chemokines and growth factors are associated with cognitive impairment in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) in remission. Fifty patients, 21 healthy siblings, and 24 controls participated in the study. The primary outcomes were associations between cognition and growth factors (brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF] and vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]), homeostatic markers (CXCL12), and inflammatory chemokines (CCL2, CCL3, CX3CL1, and CCL11) using a whole-blood immunoassay procedure. Differences between the FEP group, siblings, and controls were also examined to understand distinct group profiles. The VEGF levels were significantly higher in the FEP group than in the control group. High VEGF levels are significantly associated with lower social cognition scores. Moreover, a post hoc hierarchical regression model explained 34.5% of the variance in social cognition (=1.533, =.168), with inflammatory variables explaining 13.5% and VEGF showing statistical significance (β=-1.936, =.022). No additional significant results were found for the other inflammatory biomarkers. Our preliminary results suggest that an increase in VEGF might help preserve social cognition after first- episode psychosis. These findings might suggest that a compensatory mechanism could outweigh other VEGF- related hypotheses, such as blood-brain barrier opening and chronic neuroinflammation. However, this hypothesis requires further investigation to address the methodological challenges of determining chemokine levels and controlling for confounding variables.
认知缺陷是精神分裂症早期阶段的一个核心特征。然而，根据神经发育模型，趋化因子和生长因子在认知功能中的参与程度仍存在争议。我们旨在研究稳态/炎症趋化因子和生长因子是否与缓解期首发精神病（FEP）患者的认知障碍有关。50名患者、21名健康同胞和24名对照参与了该研究。主要结局是使用全血免疫测定程序，研究认知与生长因子（脑源性神经营养因子[BDNF]和血管内皮生长因子[VEGF]）、稳态标志物（CXCL12）以及炎症趋化因子（CCL2、CCL3、CX3CL1和CCL11）之间的关联。还对FEP组、同胞组和对照组之间的差异进行了检查，以了解不同组的特征。FEP组的VEGF水平显著高于对照组。高VEGF水平与较低的社会认知得分显著相关。此外，事后分层回归模型解释了社会认知中34.5%的方差（F = 1.533，p = 0.168），其中炎症变量解释了13.5%，VEGF具有统计学意义（β = -1.936，p = 0.022）。其他炎症生物标志物未发现额外的显著结果。我们的初步结果表明，VEGF的增加可能有助于在首发精神病后维持社会认知。这些发现可能表明一种补偿机制可能超过其他与VEGF相关的假设，如血脑屏障开放和慢性神经炎症。然而，这一假设需要进一步研究，以解决确定趋化因子水平和控制混杂变量的方法学挑战。
