Association Study Of Serum Neurotrophic Factors And Cognitive Function In Long-term Male Inpatients With Schizophrenia

Objective:Schizophrenia is a serious mental disease and there are evidences suggest that abnormal neurotrophic factors may lead to development dysfunction in the central and peripheral nervous system,abnormal neural connections and neural plasticity.Current researches found that neurotrophic factors may be associated with the pathology mechanism and cognitive function of schizophrenia.Brain derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF)and Glial derived neurotrophic factor(GDNF)in the psychiatric disorders research area get more and more attention.At the same time,with the development of neuroelectrophysiological techniques,the related potentials including event-related potential P300 are widely used in the field of cognitive function.Our study used cognitive scales and event-related potential P300 as a cognitive function instrument.This study explored the level of BDNF and GDNF in the serum,cognitive function and the relationship between these two factors in the samples.Method:82 male inpatients with schizophrenia in Jiangsu Province Yangzhou Wutaishan hospital and 52 normal controls were selected from August 2015 to July 2016.The cognitive function was tested by Verbal Fluency Test(action naming test,animal naming test),Digital Cancellation Test,Trail Taking Test(TMT-A,TMT-B),Stroop Test(word,color,word-color interference test),Block Design Test and WMS-? Spatial Span Test(WMS-? SST).The event-related potential P300 was analyzed by the United States Nicolet Viking Quest evoked potential instrument.The levels of BDNF and GDNF in the serum were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).Results:1.Serum BDNF levels in patient group(9.12.1ng/ml)was lower than the control group(11.62.3ng/ml)(t=-6.186,P<0.01),while no significant differences in GDNF level between patient(603.4182.6pg/ml)and control group(610.22±176.3 pg/ml)(t=0.201,P>0.05).2.The significant differences between the patient group and control group were found in all items of cognitive function assessment scales(P<0.01).The patients had longer latency of P300(t=22.990,P<0.01)and lower amplitude of P300(t=-9.699,P<0.01)compared to control group.The cognitive function assessment scales were correlated with age,Level of education,course of disease and the scores of PANSS.3.In patient group,the P300 latency was positively correlated with Digital Cancellation Test and TMT-A(r=0.481,P<0.01;r=0.245,P<0.05)and the P300 amplitude was negatively correlated with Digital Cancellation Test(r=-0.338,P<0.01).The serum BDNF level in patient group was negatively correlated with Digital Cancellation Test and TMT-B(r=-0.281,P<0.05;r=-0.355,P<0.05).The serum GDNF level in patient group was positively correlated with Block Design test(r=0.272,P<0.05).4.The serum BDNF level in patient group was negatively correlated with P300 latency(r=-0.262,P<0.05)and positively correlated with P300 amplitude(r=0.365,P<0.01).The serum GDNF level in patient group had no correlation with the latency and amplitude of P300.Conclusions:1.The schizophrenic patients in the stable phase still have severe cognitive impairment.2.The serum BDNF level may be a kind of quality marker of schizophrenia.3.The serum BDNF and GDNF may have correlated with cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia.4.The serum BDNF level may have correlated with event-related potential P300 in patients with schizophrenia.