| Abstract |
schizophrenia是一种严重的心理健康disorder with high heritability. The investigation of individuals during their first-episode psychosis (FEP), before the progression of psychotic disorders and especially before treatment with antipsychotic medications, is particularly helpful for understanding this complex disease and for the identification of potential biomarkers. In this study, we compared the expression of genes that are involved in neurotransmission and neurodevelopment of antipsychotic-naive FEP in the peripheral blood of patients (n=51) and healthy controls (n=51). In addition, we investigated the differentially expressed genes with respect to a) DNA methylation, b) the correlation between gene expression and clinical variables (PANSS), and c) gene expression changes after risperidone treatment. Expression levels of 11 genes were quantified with SYBR Green. For methylation analysis, bisulfite sequencing was performed. A significant decrease inGCH1mRNA levels was observed in FEP patients relative to controls. Also, when we compare the FEP patients after risperidone treatment with controls, this difference remains significant, and no significant differences were observed inGCH1mRNA levels when comparing patients before and after risperidone treatment. Additionally, although the differences were non-significant after Bonferroni correction, the expression ofGCH1seemed to be correlated with PANSS scores, and theGCH1promoter region was more methylated in FEP than in controls, thus corroborating the results obtained at the mRNA level. Few studies have been conducted onGCH1, and future studies are needed to clarify its potential role in the progression ofschizophrenia. |