Open AccessAltered insulin-like growth factor-2 signaling is associated with psychopathology and cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Yuan-Jian Yang,
Tao Luo,
Ying Zhao,
Shuzhen Jiang,
Jian Xiong,
Jin-Qiong Zhan,
Bin Yu,
Kun Yan,
Bo Wei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0226688
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , neurocognitive , psychopathology , medicine , cognition , psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry
Background Schizophrenia is linked with abnormal brain neurodevelopment, on which IGF-2 (insulin-like growth factor-2) has a great impact. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of serum IGF-2 and its binding proteins IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 in schizophrenia patients and the associations of these proteins with schizophrenia psychopathology and cognitive deficits. Methods Thirty-two schizophrenia patients and 30 healthy controls were recruited. The PANSS and a neurocognitive test battery were used to assess schizophrenic symptomatology and cognition, respectively. Serum IGF-2, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 levels were determined using ELISA. Results The schizophrenia patients had a much lower content of serum IGF-2, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 than controls. For the patients, IGF-2 levels were negatively correlated with the PANSS negative scores and positively associated with working memory, attention, and executive function. The correlations between IGF-2 and the PANSS negative scores, working memory or executive function were still significant after controlling for age, sex, education level, BMI, illness history and age of onset. No significant associations of IGFBP-3 or IGFBP-7 with the PANSS scores and cognitive function were observed in the patients. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that serum IGF-2 was significantly correlated with negative and cognitive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that altered IGF-2 signaling may be implicated in the psychopathology and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.