Secretome Analyses of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells-Derived Neural Progenitors Cells from Patients with Schizophrenia and Controls

Schizophrenia is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder, involving genetic and environmental factors. The disease results in a range of symptoms and it is related to changes during neurodevelopment. Therefore, the use of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is an attractive model to better understand the molecular mechanisms from this disorder. We performed a proteomic analysis of the secretome obtained from NPC's culture media, obtained from patients with schizophrenia and mentally healthy controls. In our results, we found proteins associated to signaling process and cellular communication. And also identified proteins associated with transport mediated by vesicles, signal transduction, brain development, organization of the extracellular matrix and targeting proteins of the membrane. The study of the secretome obtained from NPCs allows the analysis of the proteins secreted singly and those coming vesicles such as exosomes. The analysis of the proteome from the culture medium will provide a better understanding of the content released from cultured cells and their communication as well as mechanisms potentially involved in the development of schizophrenia.