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. 2023 Jun 23:19:1455-1462.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S420475. eCollection 2023.

Peripheral Complement Factor-Based Biomarkers for Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia

Yin Cao  1   2   3   4 , Yayun Xu  5   6   7 , Qingrong Xia  1   2   3   4 , Feng Shan  1   2   3   4 , Jun Liang  1   2   3   4
Affiliations

Peripheral Complement Factor-Based Biomarkers for Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia

Yin Cao et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Objective: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe, protracted neurological disorder that causes disruptive conduct in millions of individuals globally. Discovery of potential biomarkers in clinical settings would lead to the development of efficient diagnostic techniques and an awareness of the disease's pathogenesis and prognosis. The aim of the present study was to discover and identify serum complement factor-based biomarkers in discriminating patients with first-episode SCZ from healthy controls.

Methods: Eighty-nine patients with first-episode SCZ and 89 healthy controls were included in this study. Psychiatric symptom severity of patients with SCZ was measured with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-18 Item Version (BPRS) and the Scales for the Assessment of Negative/Positive Symptoms (SANS/SAPS). A total of 5 complement factors including complement component 1 (C1), C2, C3, C4, and 50% hemolytic complement (CH50) were measured using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. The levels of serum complement factors in the SCZ and control groups were compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method was used to assess the diagnostic values of various complement factors for separating SCZ patients from healthy controls. Pearson's correlation test was used to assess the relationships between serum complement factor concentrations and the psychiatric symptom severity.

Results: There was an increase in serum levels of C1, C2, C3, C4, and CH50 among patients with SCZ. Moreover, based on ROC curve analysis, the AUC value of a combined panel of C1, C2, C3, C4, and CH50 was 0.857 when used to discriminate patients with SCZ from healthy controls. Furthermore, serum C2, C3, and CH50 levels were positively correlated to the scores of SANS, SAPS, and BPRS in patients with SCZ, respectively.

Conclusion: These results suggested that circulating complement factors including C1, C2, C3, C4, and CH50 may have potential in discovering biomarkers for diagnosing first-episode SCZ.

Keywords: biomarker; complement factors; diagnosis; schizophrenia; serum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Serum levels of different complement factors in control group and SCZ group. (A) Comparison of C1; (B) Comparison of C2; (C) Comparison of C3; (D) Comparison of C4; (E) Comparison of CH50. The data are presented as the mean ± SD. **P < 0.01.
Figure 2
Figure 2
ROC curves of different complement factors in identification of patients with SCZ from healthy volunteers. (A) ROC curve of C1; (B) ROC curve of C2; (C) ROC curve of C3; (D) ROC curve of C4; (E) ROC curve of CH50; (F) ROC curve of a combined panel of C1, C2, C3, C4, and CH50.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation between psychiatric symptom severity and the levels of complement factors in SCZ group. ×: no significance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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