AUTHOR=Chen Ling-yun , Qi Jing , Xu Hong-lei , Lin Xiang-yun , Sun Ya-jun , Ju Shao-qing 

TITLE=The Value of Serum Cell-Free DNA Levels in Patients With Schizophrenia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.637789

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.637789

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder, which has a major impact on the quality of life and imposes a huge burden on the family. However, the pathogenesis of schizophrenia remains unclear and there are no specific biomarkers. Therefore, we intend to explore whether cf-DNA levels are related to the occurrence and development of schizophrenia.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We analyzed and compared the concentration of cf-DNA in 174 SZ patients and 100 matched healthy controls by using quantitative real-time PCR by amplifying the <italic>Alu</italic> repeats.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> We found that cf-DNA levels in peripheral blood reliably distinguished SZ patients from healthy controls (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). The ROC analysis also supports the above conclusion. By tracking the absolute concentration of serum cf-DNA in primary cases, we found a distinct increase before treatment with antipsychotics, which decreased progressively after treatment.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> The present work indicates that cf-DNA may improve the efficiency of disease diagnosis, and the level of cf-DNA plays a predictive role in the development of schizophrenia. By evaluating the level of cf-DNA, we might play a certain role in a more reasonable and standardized clinical treatment of schizophrenia.</p>