From Medscape Medical News
Caroline Cassels
January 26, 2010 — A blood test to aid in the diagnosis of schizophrenia may be available within the year.
An article in the January 18 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's weekly news magazine, highlights the groundbreaking work led by Sabine Bahn, MD, PhD, MRCPsych, director of the Cambridge Institute of Psychiatric Research at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, which reveals that up to 40% of changes that occur in the brains of schizophrenic patients also occur in other body parts.
Reporter Celia Henry Arnaud writes that the scientists are studying these biomarkers in the skin, immune cells, and serum to find samples that give a real-time picture of the disease. In contrast, she notes, most previous studies of schizophrenia have focused on examining potential biomarkers in brain tissue harvested at autopsy.
In the article, Dr. Bahn is quoted as saying, "We were pleased that some of our previous findings could be reproduced in the fibroblast system. It was reassuring that we can trace central nervous system abnormalities in the peripheral system."
Although the investigators initially studied fibroblasts, they are now using immune cells in schizophrenia studies because they have an added advantage of being involved in more signaling pathways, Ms. Arnaud reports.
The researchers are reportedly working with the company Rules-Based Medicine, located in Austin, Texas, and Lake Placid, New York, on the development of a diagnostic blood test. The hope is that the test will help clinicians confirm schizophrenia diagnoses and facilitate earlier treatment of the disease, which affects approximately 2 million Americans.
"The customary window is often a delay of several years until someone is confirmed and diagnosed. We know very well that if patients are treated early in the disease process, we improve outcome," said Dr. Bahn.
Chemical & Engineering News. 2010;88:26.
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