Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr:57:105-117.
doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2022.02.003. Epub 2022 Feb 24.

The role of BDNF and NGF plasma levels in first-episode schizophrenia: A longitudinal study

Albert Martínez-Pinteño  1 , Gisela Mezquida  2 , Miquel Bioque  3 , Jose M López-Ilundain  4 , Álvaro Andreu-Bernabeu  5 , Iñaki Zorrilla  6 , Anna Mané  7 , Roberto Rodríguez-Jiménez  8 , Iluminada Corripio  9 , Salvador Sarró  10 , Ángela Ibáñez  11 , Judith Usall  12 , Olga Rivero  13 , Patricia Gassó  14 , Juan Carlos Leza  15 , Manuel J Cuesta  16 , Mara Parellada  5 , Ana González-Pinto  6 , Esther Berrocoso  17 , Sergi Mas  18 , Miguel Bernardo  3 ; 2EPs Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

The role of BDNF and NGF plasma levels in first-episode schizophrenia: A longitudinal study

Albert Martínez-Pinteño et al. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Neurotrophins have been proposed to be involved in biological mechanisms which might underlie different clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. The aims of the present study were to examine the BDNF/NGF plasma levels in a cohort of first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients in remission as potential biological predictors of relapse; to study the associations between these neurotrophins and the symptomatology severity through different stages after a FES in two independent cohorts. 2EPs-Cohort: 69 first-episode in clinical remission were included. BDNF/NGF plasma levels and symptom severity were measured at enrollment and at 3-year or at the time of the second episode/relapse. FLAMM-PEPs-Cohort: 65 first-episodes were also included. BDNF/NGF and symptom severity were obtained at enrollment and 2-year follow-up. Symptomatology was assessed with the Marder-PANSS-Factor scores. Plasma neurotrophins did not differ significantly over time and neither BDNF/NGF were predictors of relapse. Besides, in remission stages, baseline BDNF levels showed significant correlations with both positive and negative symptoms (p<0.05); NGF, with negative symptomatology (p<0.01). Similarly, in the FLAMM-PEPs-Cohort, baseline BDNF/NGF levels showed significant correlations with negative symptoms (and not positive symptomatology) at follow-up (p<0.05). In both cohorts, lower levels correlated with higher symptom severity. Findings did not support a role for BDNF/NGF plasma levels as biomarkers of relapse in FES patients. Nevertheless, baseline BDNF/NGF may lead to be considered potentially useful biomarkers of long-term severity in schizophrenia and of the underlying illness traits, specially of negative symptomatology severity. More longitudinal studies in FES samples and adding a control group are warranted to replicate these findings.

Keywords: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); First-episode schizophrenia; Nerve growth factor (NGF); Peripheral biomarker; Prevention; Relapse.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Dr. Bernardo has been a consultant for, received grant/research support and honoraria from, and been on the speakers/advisory board of ABBiotics, Adamed, Angelini, Casen Recordati, Janssen-Cilag, Menarini, Rovi and Takeda. Pilar A Sáiz, has been a consultant to and/or has received honoraria or grants from Adamed, CIBERSAM, European Comission, Government of the Principality of Asturias (PCTI-2018–2022 IDI/2018/235), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Janssen-Cilag, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Plan Nacional sobre Drogas and Servier. The rest of authors have declared that there are no conflicts of interest in relation to the subject of this study.