Study on the clinical correlation between the expression of serum TNF-α and iNOS as well as cognitive impairment and disease burden in patients with schizophrenia

Objectives: To investigate the clinical correlation between the expression of serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) as well as cognitive impairment and disease burden in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

Methods: A total of 102 patients with first-episode schizophrenia admitted to the Department of Psychiatry, Hainan Province Anning Hospital from June 2018 to June 2020 were randomly selected as the observation group, and 102 healthy people who underwent physical examination in our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the expression level of serum TNF-α in each group, and the colorimetric method was adopted for detecting the expression level of serum iNOS in each group; Moreover, cognitive function of patients was assessed by MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), disease burden was assessed by Family Burden of Disease Scale (FBS), and the correlation between the expression of serum TNF-α and iNOS as well as cognitive impairment and disease burden was analyzed by Pearson method.

Results: The serum levels of TNF-α, iNOS, trail making test scores and FBS scores of the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<0.05), while the scores of symbolic coding, verbal memory, maze, visual memory, and semantic fluency were significantly lower than those of the control group (p<0.05); Pearson correlation analysis results showed that the serum levels of serum TNF-α and iNOS in the observation group were positively correlated with the trail making test and FBS scores respectively (p<0.05), and negatively correlated with the scores of symbolic coding, verbal memory, maze, visual memory, and semantic fluency (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Patients with first-episode schizophrenia have remarkably increased expression levels of serum TNF-α and iNOS, which is associated with cognitive impairment and disease burden.