Schizophrenia is a severe, complex mental illness that affects about 1% of people. Diagnosis relies on clinical interviews and the assessment of vague symptoms, which often delays diagnosis and treatment, so a biomarker that shows the risk or onset of schizophrenia would help a great deal.
Dr Schwarz and colleagues looked for a "protein fingerprint" in the blood, comparing proteins in people with schizophrenia and healthy controls using mass spectrometry. They found two clearly raised peaks corresponding to alpha-defensins, a group of proteins that kill bacteria and viruses as part of innate immunity.
They tested alpha-defensin levels in 21 pairs of twins in which only one twin had schizophrenia, and found that both twins had higher levels than healthy twin pairs. The same changes were found in people newly diagnosed with schizophrenia, showing that the high levels aren't caused by medicines or the progress of the disease.
Because both twins in each pair had high levels, the protein doesn't mark the onset of the illness, but the researchers suggest it could be a simple, useful marker for assessing people at risk. More markers are still needed to make blood tests for schizophrenia sensitive and specific enough.
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