Immunology of Schizophrenia: A Modern View on Inflammatory Hypotheses of the Disease

Abstract

Background: the immunological direction has always been a significant part of biological studies of schizophrenia and in different years has been based on the relevant fundamental ideas about the functions of the immune system and neuroimmune relationships. Objective: to conduct a brief historical analysis of immune hypotheses of schizophrenia, reflecting the vector of research of fundamental immunology, and also to present the results of our own research, confirming the key role of chronic inflammation in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and the possibility of using immunological indicators for diagnosis and prognosis of the course of the disease. Materials and Method: using the keywords “schizophrenia”, “immune hypotheses of schizophrenia”, “neuroinflammation”, “neuroimmune relationships” we analyzed publications from PubMed/MEDLINE, RSCI databases and other sources of the last decades in comparison with the results of clinical and biological studies of schizophrenia at the Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC). Conclusion: based on the analysis of publications, it is shown that the development of scientfic ideas about the relationship between the immune system and schizophrenia has led to the understanding of the key role of chronic inflammation in the pathogenesis of this disease. Based on comparative studies of a number of immune markers related to cytokine system, acute phase proteins, proteolytic enzymes, etc., a laboratory test system “Neuroimmuno-test”, which includes complex determination of iflammatory and autoimmune markers in blood plasma, was created at the MHRC. It is shown that the level of immune system activation correlates with the features of psychopathological symptoms of patients. Identification of the immune profiles of patients is important to differentiate disease subtypes for the purpose of diagnosis and personalized therapy.