TY  - JOUR
AU  - Konen, Franz Felix
AU  - Gehring, Philipp Sebastian
AU  - Maier, Hannah Benedictine
AU  - Schröder, Sebastian
AU  - Türker, Seda Nur
AU  - Frieling, Helge
AU  - Bleich, Stefan
AU  - Huss, André
AU  - Tumani, Hayrettin
AU  - Lüdecke, Daniel
AU  - Gallinat, Jürgen
AU  - Malchow, Berend
AU  - Hansen, Niels
AU  - Wiltfang, Jens
AU  - Neyazi, Alexandra
AU  - Skripuletz, Thomas
TI  - Pilot study of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers reveals inflammatory changes in patients with paranoid schizophrenia.
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 15
IS  - 1
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - [London]
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - DZNE-2025-00916
SP  - 28319
PY  - 2025
AB  - Paranoid schizophrenia is a severe mental illness with both positive and negative symptoms. Currently, the role of peripheral and central inflammation is increasingly suspected as possible factor in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This retrospective, monocentric pilot study investigated 35 patients (15/35 female) diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after exclusion of possible underlying neuroinflammatory disorders to assess for inflammatory changes of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and associated signs of neurodegeneration. Kappa free light chains (KFLC), a panel of 21 cyto- and chemokines, and neurofilament light chains (NFL) as surrogate parameters for neuro-inflammation and -degeneration were determined in patients with paranoid schizophrenia as well as age- and sex-matched inflammatory (n = 35) and non-inflammatory controls (n = 40). Patients with paranoid schizophrenia exhibited significantly higher intrathecal synthesized fractions of KFLC than non-inflammatory controls. KFLC-positive patients with paranoid schizophrenia had significantly higher NFL concentrations in CSF than KFLC-negative patients according to Reiber´s diagram. NFL concentrations in CSF of patients with paranoid schizophrenia were associated with illness duration, frequency of psychotic episodes, and amount of antipsychotic treatment attempts. This pilot study highlights inflammatory changes in the CSF among a specific subgroup of patients with paranoid schizophrenia, positively correlating with elevated NFL levels in CSF.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Schizophrenia, Paranoid: cerebrospinal fluid
KW  - Female
KW  - Male
KW  - Pilot Projects
KW  - Biomarkers: cerebrospinal fluid
KW  - Adult
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Retrospective Studies
KW  - Inflammation: cerebrospinal fluid
KW  - Neurofilament Proteins: cerebrospinal fluid
KW  - Cerebrospinal fluid (Other)
KW  - Chemokines (Other)
KW  - Cytokines (Other)
KW  - Kappa free light chains (Other)
KW  - Neurofilament light chains (Other)
KW  - Paranoid schizophrenia (Other)
KW  - Biomarkers (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Neurofilament Proteins (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - neurofilament protein L (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40754554
C2  - pmc:PMC12319074
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-13367-8
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/280238
ER  -