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 Feb 14:12:822579.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.822579. eCollection 2021.

Uric Acid Potential Role in Systemic Inflammation and Negative Symptoms After Acute Antipsychotic Treatment in Schizophrenia

Milica M Borovcanin  1 , Slavica Minic Janicijevic  2 , Natasa R Mijailovic  3 , Ivan P Jovanovic  4 , Nebojsa N Arsenijevic  4 , Katarina Vesic  5
Affiliations

Uric Acid Potential Role in Systemic Inflammation and Negative Symptoms After Acute Antipsychotic Treatment in Schizophrenia

Milica M Borovcanin et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Uric acid (UA) has been shown to have neuroprotective or neurotoxic properties, in relation to specific tissues and diseases that have been studied. Previous studies provided contradictory results on the role of UA in schizophrenia as a neurodegenerative disorder. The aim of this brief report was an additional analysis of UA sera levels in different phases of schizophrenia. Here, 86 patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) vs. 45 patients with schizophrenia in relapse (SC in relapse) vs. 35 healthy control subjects (HC) were studied before and 1 month after antipsychotic therapy. Further, we aimed to explore the possible correlation of UA with scores presenting clinical features and with serum concentrations of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-17. When comparing the data between all three groups, we did not find significant differences in UA levels, either before or after the applied therapy. Also, comparing sera concentrations of UA in every single group, the analysis did not reveal statistically significant differences between FEP patients, but statistically, a significant difference was found in SC in relapse before and after treatment (334.71 ± 116.84 vs. 289.37 ± 109.15 μmol/L, p = 0.05). Uric acid serum levels correlated with negative sub-score (p = 0.001, r = 0.306), general sub-score (p = 0.015, r = 0.236), and total PANSS score (p = 0.009, r = 0.3) after 1 month of therapy. We have established a statistically significant positive correlation between serum concentrations of UA and IL-6 in exacerbation (p = 0.01, r = 0.220) and with IL-17 after treatment and in the stabilization of psychosis (p = 0.01, r = 0.34), suggesting potential cascades in different phases of schizophrenia that potentiate inflammation.

Keywords: cytokines; interleukin-17; interleukin-6; schizophrenia; uric acid.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Correlation between serum uric acid (UA) levels and positive, negative (N), and general (G) sub-scores, and total PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) score, after 1 month of antipsychotic treatment. Significant correlation was established between UA serum levels with negative sub-score (p = 0.001, r = 0.306), general sub-score (p = 0.015, r = 0.236), and total PANSS score (p = 0.009, r = 0.3) after 1 month of therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. El Ridi R, Tallima H. Physiological functions and pathogenic potential of uric acid: a review. J Adv Res. (2017) 8:487–93. 10.1016/j.jare.2017.03.003 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhou X, Liu L, Lan X, Cohen D, Zhang Y, Ravindran A V, et al. Polyunsaturated fatty acids metabolism, purine metabolism and inosine as potential independent diagnostic biomarkers for major depressive disorder in children and adolescents. Mol Psychiatry. (2019) 24:1478–88. 10.1038/s41380-018-0047-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ali-Sisto T, Tolmunen T, Velagapudi V, Mäntyselkä P, Lehto SM. Purine metabolism in patients with major depression: a follow-up study. Eur Psychiatry. (2015) 30:625. 10.1016/S0924-9338(15)31919-2 - DOI
    1. Yao JK, Dougherty GG, Reddy RD, Keshavan MS, Montrose DM, Matson WR, et al. Homeostatic imbalance of purine catabolism in first-episode neuroleptic-naïve patients with schizophrenia. PLoS ONE. (2010) 5:e9508. 10.1371/journal.pone.0009508 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Steen NE, Dieset I, Hope S, Vedal TSJ, Smeland OB, Matson W, et al. Metabolic dysfunctions in the kynurenine pathway, noradrenergic and purine metabolism in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Psychol Med. (2020) 50:595–606. 10.1017/S0033291719000400 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources