Decreased Serum EGF in First-episode and Chronic Schizophrenia Patients: Negative Correlation with Psychopathology

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Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that neurotrophic factors may play a critical role in the severity of clinical symptoms in schizophrenia. However, it remains unknown whether serum levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in schizophrenia are similar to those observed in the case of other neurotrophic factors. Therefore, we compared serum EGF concentrations in first-episode drug-naive (FEP) patients and medicated chronic schizophrenic patients with healthy controls in order to explore whether EGF levels are related to psychopathological symptoms. We measured the serum levels of EGF in 78 first-episode medication-naive schizophrenia patients, 76 medicated chronic schizophrenic patients, and 75 healthy controls using the sandwich ELISA method. Disease severity were measured using the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). Serum EGF levels showed a significant decrease in schizophrenia patients in comparison to healthy subjects. Serum EGF levels in FEP patients are indistinguishable from chronic cases. EGF levels were related to PANSS general symptom subscales in both FEP never-medicated and medicated patients. It is interesting that serum EGF levels were negatively correlated with the PANSS cognitive subscales, with the exception of the patients with chronic schizophrenia. Our preliminary results indicated that EGF may play a role in this illness and that it could be used as a potential biomarker of disease severity. Moreover, EGF may be associated with cognitive subscales of PANSS in FEP patients. Future studies should investigate the relationship between EGF and cognitive function as measured using standardized neuropsychological assessments to identify potential biomarkers related with cognition.

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Most cited references 32

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Plasma epidermal growth factor levels predict cognitive decline in Parkinson disease.

Daniel Weintraub, Andrew Siderowf, Dania van der Meer … (2011)

Most people with Parkinson disease (PD) eventually develop cognitive impairment (CI). However, neither the timing of onset nor the severity of cognitive symptoms can be accurately predicted. We sought plasma-based biomarkers for CI in PD. A discovery cohort of 70 PD patients was recruited. Cognitive status was evaluated with the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale-2 (DRS) at baseline and on annual follow-up visits, and baseline plasma levels of 102 proteins were determined with a bead-based immunoassay. Using linear regression, we identified biomarkers of CI in PD, that is, proteins whose levels correlated with cognitive performance at baseline and/or cognitive decline at follow-up. We then replicated the association between cognitive performance and levels of the top biomarker, using a different technical platform, with a separate cohort of 113 PD patients. Eleven proteins exhibited plasma levels correlating with baseline cognitive performance in the discovery cohort. The best candidate was epidermal growth factor (EGF, p < 0.001); many of the other 10 analytes covaried with EGF across samples. Low levels of EGF not only correlated with poor cognitive test scores at baseline, but also predicted an 8-fold greater risk of cognitive decline to dementia-range DRS scores at follow-up for those with intact baseline cognition. A weaker, but still significant, relationship between plasma EGF levels and cognitive performance was found in an independent replication cohort of 113 PD patients. Our data suggest that plasma EGF may be a biomarker for progression to CI in PD. Copyright © 2010 American Neurological Association.

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Abnormal expression of epidermal growth factor and its receptor in the forebrain and serum of schizophrenic patients.

K Niizato, Hiroyuki Nawa, K O Toyooka … (2001)

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) comprises a structurally related family of proteins containing heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) and transforming growth factor alpha (TGFalpha) that regulates the development of dopaminergic neurons as well as monoamine metabolism. We assessed the contribution of EGF to schizophrenia by measuring EGF family protein levels in postmortem brains and in fresh serum of schizophrenic patients and control subjects. EGF protein levels were decreased in the prefrontal cortex and striatum of schizophrenic patients, whereas the levels of HB-EGF and TGFalpha were not significantly different in any of the regions examined. Conversely, EGF receptor expression was elevated in the prefrontal cortex. Serum EGF levels were markedly reduced in schizophrenic patients, even in young, drug-free patients. Chronic treatment of animals with the antipsychotic drug haloperidol had no influence on EGF levels in the brain or serum. These findings suggest that there is abnormal EGF production in various central and peripheral tissues of patients with both acute and chronic schizophrenia. EGF might thus provide a molecular substrate for the pathologic manifestation of the illness, although additional studies are required to determine a potential link between impaired EGF signaling and the pathology/etiology of schizophrenia.

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Growth factors as clinical biomarkers of prognosis and diagnosis in psychiatric disorders.

Alma Galvez-Contreras, Rodrigo Ramos-Zúñiga, Oscar González-Perez … (2016)

The psychiatric disorders are one of the most disabling illnesses in the world and represent a major problem for public health. These disorders are characterized by neuroanatomical or biochemical changes and it has been suggested that such changes may be due to inadequate neurodevelopment. Diverse alterations in the gene expression and/or serum level of specific growth factors have been implicated in the etiology, symptoms and progression of some psychiatric disorders. Herein, we summarize the latest information regarding the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), neuroregulin-1 (NGR-1), erythropoietin (EPO), vascular growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), nerve growth factor (NGF) and others cytokines in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, depression, bipolar and anxiety disorders. Focusing on the role of these growth factors and their relationship with the main impairments (cognitive, emotional and social) of these pathologies. Some of these signaling molecules may be suitable biological markers for diagnosis and prognosis in cognitive, mood and social disabilities across different mental disorders.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Xiaobin Zhang: zhangxiaobim@163.com

Xiangdong Du: xiangdong-du@163.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sci Rep

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sci Rep

Title: Scientific Reports

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2045-2322

Publication date (Electronic): 16 April 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 16 April 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 10

Electronic Location Identifier: 6506

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0198 0694, GRID grid.263761.7, Institute of Mental Health, Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, ; Suzhou, Jiangsu 215137 P.R. China

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1797 7280, GRID grid.449428.7, School of mental health, Jining medical University, ; Jining, 272000 P.R. China

[3 ]GRID grid.268415.c, Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated WuTaiShan Hospital of Medical College of Yangzhou University, ; Yangzhou, 225003 P.R. China

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0238 8414, GRID grid.411440.4, Department of Nursing, Huzhou University, Huzhou, ; Zhejiang, 313000 China

[5 ]Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029 China

Article

Publisher ID: 63544

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-63544-0

PMC ID: 7162869

PubMed ID: 32300175

SO-VID: 09348ea7-6b04-4d7c-8edd-1cc77c6fd681

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 27 December 2019

Date accepted : 30 March 2020

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

Keywords: neuroscience,human behaviour

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

Keywords: neuroscience, human behaviour

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