Copyright
©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Association of serum interleukin-6 with negative symptoms in stable early-onset schizophrenia
Peng Chen, Hai-Dong Yang, Jun-Jie Wang, Zhen-Hua Zhu, Hui-Min Zhao, Xu-Yuan Yin, Yuan Cai, Hong-Liang Zhu, Jia-Lin Fu, Xin-Zhu Zhang, Wen-Xi Sun, Li Hui, Xiao-Bin Zhang
Peng Chen, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu Province, China
Peng Chen, Jun-Jie Wang, Hong-Liang Zhu, Jia-Lin Fu, Xin-Zhu Zhang, Wen-Xi Sun, Xiao-Bin Zhang, Department of Psychiatry, Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital, Institute of Mental Health, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
Hai-Dong Yang, Department of Psychiatry, The Fourth People’s Hospital of Lianyungang, The Affiliated Kangda College of Nanjing Medical University, Lianyungang 222003, Jiangsu Province, China
Zhen-Hua Zhu, Xu-Yuan Yin, Yuan Cai, Li Hui, Research Center of Biological Psychiatry, Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital, Institute of Mental Health, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
Hui-Min Zhao, Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Gusu School, Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou 215002, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Peng Chen and Hai-Dong Yang.
Co-corresponding authors: Li Hui and Xiao-Bin Zhang.
Author contributions: Chen P, Yang HD and Wang JJ were responsible for data collection, data curation, and writing original draft; Chen P, Yang HD, Wang JJ, Sun WX and Zhao HM performed the statistical analysis; Zhu ZH, Cai Y and Yin XY were responsible for performing the clinical rating; Zhu HL, Fu JL and Zhang XZ were responsible for recruiting the patients, and collecting the samples; All authors reviewed the manuscript. Hui L and Zhang XB were co-corresponding authors; Zhang XB was responsible for study design, statistical analyses, and editorial revisions; Hui L was responsible for study design, patient recruitment, funding acquisition, supervision, and editing.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82371508 and No. 81771439; Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program, No. BE2020661; Suzhou Municipal Health Commission Science Research Program, No. GSWS2020095; National Mentorship Training Programme for Young Health Professionals, No. Qngg2022027; Suzhou Clinical Key disciplines for Geriatric Psychiatry, No. SZXK202116; Suzhou Clinical Medical Center for Mood Disorders, No. Szlcyxzx202109; Suzhou Key Technologies Program, No. SKY2021063; Suzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau Program, No. SKJY2021142, No. SKJY2021143, No. SKY2023227, No. SKY2022064 and No. SKYD2023159; Suzhou Key Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Program, No. LCZX202218.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Suzhou Guangji Hospital Institutional Review Board, Approval No. 2022005.
Informed consent statement: All clinical trials were obtained informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest was disclosed for each author.
Data sharing statement: The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Xiao-Bin Zhang, MD, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Psychiatry, Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital, Institute of Mental Health, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, No. 11 Guangqian Road, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China.
zhangxiaobim@163.com
Received: March 12, 2024
Revised: April 28, 2024
Accepted: May 17, 2024
Published online: June 19, 2024
Processing time: 99 Days and 5.7 Hours
BACKGROUND
Accumulating evidence suggests that the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) contributes to the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. However, there was no study concerning the relationship between IL-6 concentrations and clinical features in the chronic phase of early-onset schizophrenia (EOS).
AIM
To investigate the relationship between serum IL-6 concentration and the clinical features of EOS.
METHODS
We measured serum IL-6 Levels from 74 patients with chronic schizophrenia, including 33 with age at onset < 21 years (EOS group) and 41 with onset ≥ 21 years in [adult-onset schizophrenia (AOS) group], and from 41 healthy controls. Symptom severities were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
RESULTS
Serum IL-6 concentrations were higher in both EOS and AOS groups than healthy controls (F = 22.32, P < 0.01), but did not differ significantly between EOS and AOS groups (P > 0.05) after controlling for age, body mass index, and other covariates. Negative symptom scores were higher in the EOS group than the AOS group (F = 6.199, P = 0.015). Serum IL-6 concentrations in the EOS group were negatively correlated with both total PANSS-negative symptom score (r = -0.389, P = 0.032) and avolition/asociality subscore (r = -0.387, P = 0.026).
CONCLUSION
Patients with EOS may have more severe negative symptoms than those with adult-onset schizophrenia during the chronic phase of the illness. IL-6 signaling may regulate negative symptoms and its avolition/asociality subsymptoms among the early-onset chronic schizophrenic patients.
Core Tip: In this study, we focus on the negative symptoms and inflammatory levels in the chronic stage of early-onset schizophrenia. Patients' clinical symptoms were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and the level of inflammation was assessed by serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) Levels. Our study found that patients with early-onset schizophrenia may have more severe negative symptoms than those with adult-onset schizophrenia during the chronic phase of the illness. IL-6 signaling may regulate negative symptoms and its avolition/asociality subsymptoms among the early-onset chronic schizophrenic patients.
