Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

There is some evidence that the pathophysiology of schizophrenia is related to activation of the inflammatory response system (IRS), as indicated by increased serum concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-6 receptor (IL-6R), IL-1R antagonist (IL-1RA) and IL-2R and lower serum concentrations of CC16, an endogenous anti-inflammatory protein with immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory effects. The aims of the present study were to examine serum CC16 in relation to IL-6, IL-6R and gp130, the IL-6 transducing signal protein, in schizophrenia and in treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Serum IL-6 and sIL-6R were significantly higher in medicated schizophrenic patients than in normal controls. Serum IL-6 was significantly higher in TRS than in normal volunteers, whereas schizophrenic patients without TRS showed intermediate values. Serum CC16 was significantly lower in schizophrenic patients with a positive family history for psychoses than in normal volunteers and patients without a positive family history. There was a significant inverse relationship between serum CC16 and serum IL-6 or sIL-6R in schizophrenic patients, but not in normal volunteers. The results suggest that the inflammatory response in schizophrenia, as indicated by increased serum IL-6 and sIL-6R, may be causally related to lower serum CC16 and that the latter might be a trait marker for schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:The inflammatory response system in treatment-resistant schizophrenia: increased serum interleukin-6. 969 Mar 29

Serum levels of interleukin-2 soluble receptor alpha (IL-2sR alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) were determined both before and during neuroleptic administration in an 8-week treatment protocol for schizophrenia. In comparison with a control group, schizophrenia patients showed significantly higher serum levels of IL-2sR alpha, IL-6 and IL-1ra at weeks 0, 1, 4 and 8, and there was a significant negative correlation between the serum level of IL-2sR alpha at week 1 and the age at illness onset. Those of the schizophrenia patients who were neuroleptic-naive had significantly higher pretreatment serum levels of IL-2sR alpha, IL-6 and IL-1ra than the controls. There were significant positive correlations between the IL-2sR alpha levels at weeks 0 and 1, and the psychopathology scores, evaluated using the positive and negative syndrome scale at week 4. IL-6 levels at weeks 0, 1 and 4 were significantly and positively correlated with the duration of illness. The IL-1ra level at week 1 was significantly and positively correlated with positive symptoms at week 1. The present study supports the suggestion that changes in the immune system are involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Serum levels of soluble IL-2 receptor alpha, IL-6 and IL-1 receptor antagonist in schizophrenia before and during neuroleptic administration. 1022 12

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels have been shown to be increased in a number of autoimmune disorders and have recently been shown to be elevated in the serum of schizophrenic patients. Given the involvement of the CNS in schizophrenia, levels of interleukin-6 in the CSF are also of interest. Thus, we examined levels of both CSF and serum IL-6 concomitantly to determine if these levels were different from control values. In addition, we examined these measures in patients both on and off antipsychotic drugs to determine if any medication or exacerbation effects may account for the difference from controls. CSF IL-6 was measured by ELISA in 61 drug-free male schizophrenic (DSM-IIIR) patients and 25 well-screened healthy male control subjects. Serum IL-6 was measured in 43 of the 61 patients, and in 16 control subjects. Serum IL-6 was significantly higher in the schizophrenic patients compared to control subjects. CSF IL-6 was also higher in the patients, but the difference was not statistically significant. Paired data showed no medication or exacerbation effects on CSF IL-6, but plasma IL-6 significantly decreased in patients that experienced an exacerbation after medication withdrawal. The results indicate that IL-6 levels may be altered in schizophrenia. The relative decrease in exacerbated patients following haloperidol withdrawal may be indicative of a compensatory response of plasma IL-6 levels to relapse.
 ...
PMID:Elevated interleukin-6 in schizophrenia 1057 46

Immune alterations in schizophrenia have been described for decades. However, modern immunological methods and new insights into the highly developed and functionally differentiated immune system allows an integrative view of both, the older and also recent findings of immunological abnormalities in schizophrenia. Both, the unspecific and the specific arm of the immune system seem to be involved in the dysfunction of the immune system in schizophrenia. The unspecific "innate" immune system shows signs of an overactivation in unmedicated schizophrenic patients, as increased monocytes and gamma delta-cells point to. Increased levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the activation of the IL-6 system in schizophrenia might also be the result of the activation of monocytes/macrophages. On the contrary, several parameters of the specific cellular immune system are blunted, e.g. the decreased T-helper-1 (TH-1) related immune parameters in schizophrenic patients both, in vitro and in vivo. It seems that a TH-1-TH-2 imbalance with a shift to the TH-2 system is associated with schizophrenia. During antipsychotic therapy with neuroleptics, the specific TH-1 related immune answer becomes activated, but also the B-cell system and the antibody production increases.
 ...
PMID:The role of immune function in schizophrenia: an overview. 1065 11

There is now some evidence that schizophrenia may be accompanied by an activation of the inflammatory response system (IRS) and that typical antipsychotics may suppress some signs of IRS activation in that illness. This study was carried out to examine (i) the serum concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-6 receptor (IL-6R), IL-1R antagonist (IL-1RA) and Clara Cell protein (CC16), an endogenous anticytokine, in nonresponders to treatment with typical neuroleptics and (ii) the effects of atypical antipsychotics on the above IRS variables. The above parameters were determined in 17 patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) to treatment with neuroleptics and in seven normal volunteers and 14 schizophrenic patients who had a good response to treatment with antipsychotic agents. Patients with TRS had repeated measurements of the IRS variables before and 2 and 4 months after treatment with atypical antipsychotics. Serum IL-6 was significantly higher in schizophrenic patients, irrespective of their response to typical antipsychotics, than in normal controls. Serum IL-1RA was significantly higher in the TRS patients than in controls, whereas responders took up an intermediate position. The serum concentrations of CC16 were significantly lower after treatment with atypical antipsychotics during 4 months than before treatment. It is concluded that (i) schizophrenia and, in particular, TRS is characterized by an activation of the monocytic arm of cell-mediated immunity and (ii) atypical antipsychotics may decrease the anti-inflammatory capacity of the serum in TRS patients.
 ...
PMID:Effects of atypical antipsychotics on the inflammatory response system in schizophrenic patients resistant to treatment with typical neuroleptics. 1070 93

Immune alterations in schizophrenia have been described for decades. Modern immunological methods and new insights into the highly developed and functionally differentiated immune system allow an integrative view of both the older and the recent findings of immunological abnormalities in schizophrenia. Both the unspecific and the specific arms of the immune system seem to be involved in the dysfunction of the immune system in schizophrenia. The unspecific, "innate" immune system shows signs of overactivation in unmedicated schizophrenic patients, as indicated by increased monocytes and gamma delta-cells. Increased levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the activation of the IL-6 system in schizophrenia might be the result of the activation of monocytes/macrophages, too. On the other hand, several parameters of the specific cellular immune system are blunted, such as, for example, the decreased T helper-1 (TH-1)-related immune parameters in schizophrenic patients both in vitro and in vivo. It seems that a TH-1-TH-2 imbalance with a shift to the TH-2 system is associated with schizophrenia. During antipsychotic therapy with neuroleptics, the specific TH-1-related immune answer becomes activated, but in addition the B cell system and antibody production increase.
 ...
PMID:The immune system and schizophrenia. An integrative view. 1126 73

Increasing evidence associates schizophrenia with prenatal exposure to infection. Impaired ability to "gate out" sensory and cognitive information is considered to be a central feature of schizophrenia and is manifested, among others, in disrupted prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex. We analyzed the effect of a prenatal immune challenge- peripheral administration of bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to pregnant female rats-upon PPI and immune function in adult offspring. Prenatal LPS treatment disrupted PPI which was reversed by antipsychotics. Serum levels of interleukin-2 and interleukin-6 were increased. In addition, histopathological features in brain areas related with PPI circuitry were observed. These results illustrate the critical influence of prenatal immune events upon adult CNS functioning in association with the putative role of the immune system in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Prenatal immune challenge disrupts sensorimotor gating in adult rats. Implications for the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. 1179 May 16

Immune alterations in schizophrenia have been described for decades. However, modern immunological methods and new insights into the highly developed and functionally differentiated immune system allow an integrative view of both the older and also more recent findings of immunological abnormalities in schizophrenia. The conceptual advances in immunology require the re-evaluation of elder immunological findings in schizophrenia. In this overview, recent advances in immunological research regarding the differentiation between T-Helper-1 and T-Helper-2 cells and between the so-called specific and unspecific arms of the immune system are discussed. The unspecific "innate" immune system shows signs of an over-activation in unmedicated schizophrenic patients, as increased monocytes and gamma delta-cells point to. Increased levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the activation of the IL-6 system in schizophrenia might be the result of the activation of monocytes/macrophages, too. In contrast, several parameters of the specific cellular immune system are blunted, e.g. the decreased T-helper-1 (TH-1) related immune parameters in schizophrenic patients, both in vitro and in vivo. It seems that a TH-1-TH-2 imbalance with a shift to the TH-2 system is associated with schizophrenia. During therapy with antipsychotics, the specific TH-1 related immune answer becomes activated, but the B-cell system and the antibody production become activated too.
 ...
PMID:Cellular and humoral immune system in schizophrenia: a conceptual re-evaluation. 1260 12

Evidence of immune activation has occasionally, but not consistently, been reported in schizophrenia. Investigations of cytokine abnormalities in serum, and occasionally in CSF, have yielded inconsistent results, which have been difficult to resolve. In such studies, schizophrenia has been assumed to consist of a single process rather than a group of disorders. This study assesses differences in the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in two previously delineated subtypes of schizophrenics ("delayed-responders"(DR) (n=23) and "poor-responders" (PR) (n=8)) during periods of neuroleptic-free psychotic exacerbation, and in a comparison group of normal controls (n=14). The two response subtypes were separated by subsequent treatment response (greater/less than 60% reduction of SAPS scores from baseline during 6 months of systematic treatment). The IL-6 assay, a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was sensitive and reliable to detect IL-6 levels in the CSF of all subjects. CSF IL-6 was found to be significantly higher in the DR than the PR (P=0.017) and the controls (P=0.013). In addition to supporting the concept of heterogeneity in schizophrenia, this study also provides evidence that a central immune process may be occurring centrally in one subtype of schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Elevated interleukin-6 in the cerebrospinal fluid of a previously delineated schizophrenia subtype. 1279 18

Recent advances in immunological research regarding the differentiation between the type-1 and type-2 immune response are discussed. Increased levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the activation of the IL-6 system in schizophrenia might be the result of the activation of type-2 monocytes/macrophages, too. On the contrary, several parameters of the specific cellular immune system are blunted, e. g. the decreased type-1 related immune parameters in schizophrenic patients. This study was performed as a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized evaluation of risperidone and celecoxib versus risperidone and placebo. Fifty schizophrenic patients were included in the study: 25 patients received risperidone and placebo, and 25 patients received risperidone and celecoxib for 5 weeks after the wash-out period. The treatment effect was calculated by ANCOVA. In parallel, serum levels of sTNF-R1 and sIL- 2R, and the percentages of CD3(+)-, CD4(+)-, and CD19(+) lymphocytes were estimated. As expected, both groups of schizophrenic patients showed significant improvement. However, the celecoxib add-on therapy group showed a significant group effect in the PANSS total score. The cytokines and lymphocytes reflected the type-1/type-2 balancing effects of COX-2 inhibitors. Additional treatment with celecoxib has significant positive effects on the therapeutic action of risperidone with regard to the total schizophrenia psychopathology. Moreover, the fact that treatment with an immunomodulatory drug shows beneficial effects on the symptomatology of schizophrenia indicates that immune dysfunction in schizophrenia is not just an epiphenomenon, but related to the pathomechanism of the disorder.
 ...
PMID:COX-2 inhibition as a treatment approach in schizophrenia: immunological considerations and clinical effects of celecoxib add-on therapy. 1499 74


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next >>