New Blood Test Helps Detect Schizophrenia

The levels of CRMP2 protein in the brain could be used as a diagnostic aid for detecting schizophrenia, found scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys. The levels of this protein can be easily exploited through a blood-based laboratory test. “This study examined the activity of CRMP2, a protein found in the brain (called a ‘cytoskeletal protein’) that regulates how neurons make connections with each other. CRMP2 also happens to be expressed in lymphocytes in the blood and can therefore be readily sampled in people by doing nothing more than a simple venipuncture,” said Dr.Evan Y. Snyder, co-senior author of the study.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder affecting 20 million people worldwide. People with schizophrenia are 2-3 times more likely to die early than the general population, as per WHO statistics.

While previous research has indicated that most people maintain a balance between the active and inactive forms of CRMP2 protein, the current study examined the post-mortem brain tissue and blood samples from people with schizophrenia and also compared the levels of CRMP2 protein from these samples to those in people without the disorder.

The analyses found that the level of active CRMP2 was higher in people with schizophrenia than those who did not have it. In young people with schizophrenia, the levels of active CRMP2 were not balanced by an appropriate amount of increased inactive CRMP2.

“Schizophrenia can be challenging to diagnose early on or in young patients for a number of reasons. Pairing a blood test with psychiatric and neurobehavioral exams could help doctors distinguish schizophrenia from other conditions that have somewhat similar symptomologies, such as the manic phase of bipolar disorder or other behavioral, personality, or thought disorders,” said Snyder.

The research team is now planning to probe further into the molecular mechanism of the disease. The current study is an international collaboration among groups at Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan and the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Belmont, Massachusetts. The findings of the research have been recently published in PNAS.

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Source-Medindia