The role of BDNF and NGF plasma levels in first-episode schizophrenia: A longitudinal study

• DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2022.02.003
• Publication Date: 2022-02-24T04:11:58Z
• Authors: Albert Martínez-P...; Gisela Mezquida; Miquel Bioque; Jose M López-Ilun...; Álvaro Andreu-Ber...; Iñaki Zorrilla; Anna Mané; Roberto Rodríguez...; Iluminada Corripio; Salvador Sarró; Ángela Ibáñez; Judith Usall; Olga Rivero; Patricia Gassó; Juan Carlos Leza; Manuel J Cuesta; Mara Parellada; Ana González-Pinto; Esther Berrocoso; Sergi Mas; Miguel Bernardo; S Amoretti; C Morén; E Urbiola; J González-Peñas; A Roldán; A Catalán; I González-Ortega; A Toll; T Legido; L Sanchez-Pastor; M Dompablo; E Pomarol-Clotet; Landín-Romero R; A Butjosa; E Rubio; Lorente-OmeñacaR; M Ribeiro; I López-Torres; L León-Quismondo; J Nácher; F Contretas; A Lobo; M Gutiérrez-Fraile; PA Sáiz
• Keywords: recurrent disease; correlation analysis; nerve growth factor; Article; 03 medical and health sciences; remission; 0302 clinical medicine; male; Recurrence; Nerve Growth Factor; follow up; Humans; controlled study; human; Longitudinal Studies; Relapse; relapse; predictive value; Prevention; adult; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; neurotrophin; longitudinal study; scoring system; protein function; biological marker; cohort analysis; major clinical study; First-episode schizophrenia; schizophrenia; female; Nerve growth factor (NGF); brain derived neurotrophic factor; disease severity assessment; protein blood level; symptomatology; Schizophrenia; Peripheral biomarker; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; Biomarkers

Neurotrophins have been proposed to be involved in biological mechanisms which might underlie different clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. The aims of the present study were to examine the BDNF/NGF plasma levels in a cohort of first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients in remission as potential biological predictors of relapse; to study the associations between these neurotrophins and the symptomatology severity through different stages after a FES in two independent cohorts. 2EPs-Cohort: 69 first-episode in clinical remission were included. BDNF/NGF plasma levels and symptom severity were measured at enrollment and at 3-year or at the time of the second episode/relapse. FLAMM-PEPs-Cohort: 65 first-episodes were also included. BDNF/NGF and symptom severity were obtained at enrollment and 2-year follow-up. Symptomatology was assessed with the Marder-PANSS-Factor scores. Plasma neurotrophins did not differ significantly over time and neither BDNF/NGF were predictors of relapse. Besides, in remission stages, baseline BDNF levels showed significant correlations with both positive and negative symptoms (p<0.05); NGF, with negative symptomatology (p<0.01). Similarly, in the FLAMM-PEPs-Cohort, baseline BDNF/NGF levels showed significant correlations with negative symptoms (and not positive symptomatology) at follow-up (p<0.05). In both cohorts, lower levels correlated with higher symptom severity. Findings did not support a role for BDNF/NGF plasma levels as biomarkers of relapse in FES patients. Nevertheless, baseline BDNF/NGF may lead to be considered potentially useful biomarkers of long-term severity in schizophrenia and of the underlying illness traits, specially of negative symptomatology severity. More longitudinal studies in FES samples and adding a control group are warranted to replicate these findings.