Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience

Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience Papers in Press available online.

Transforming growth factor-β serum levels associated with social function in subjects at ultra-high risk for psychosis: A multicenter study

Yuji Yamada

^1,2, Naoko Kishimoto³, Hiromi Tagata⁴, Tsubasa Morimoto⁵, Kazuho Tomimoto⁶, Yutaro Sato⁶, Yuko Higuchi⁷, Hiroshi Hiejima⁸, Hayato Ohshima⁸, Takao Kato⁸, Mari S. Oba⁹, Shoki Izumi⁹, Yui Tomo⁹, Shingo Kitamura¹⁰, Andrew Stickley¹, Toshifumi Kishimoto^5,11, Takahiro Nemoto⁴, Masafumi Mizuno¹², Hiroaki Tomita⁶, Michio Suzuki⁷, Motohiro Ozone⁸, Kenji Hashimoto¹³, Kazuo Mishima¹⁴, Takashi Ohnishi¹⁵, Kazuyuki Nakagome², Tomiki Sumiyoshi

^1,2,*

¹Department of Preventive Intervention for Psychiatric Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan. , ²Department of Psychiatry, National Center Hospital, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan., ³Department of Health Science, Osaka International University Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka, Japan., ⁴Department of Neuropsychiatry, Toho University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan., ⁵Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Nara, Japan., ⁶Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan., ⁷Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan., ⁸Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan., ⁹Department of Clinical Data Science, Clinical Research & Education Promotion Division, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan., ¹⁰Department of Sleep-Wake Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan., ¹¹Akitsukounoike Hospital, Nara, Japan., ¹²Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, Tokyo, Japan., ¹³Division of Clinical Neuroscience, Chiba University Center for Forensic Mental Health, Chiba, Japan., ¹⁴Department of Neuropsychiatry, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan., ¹⁵Medical Affairs Division, Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K., Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Schizophrenia mainly begins in adolescence and leads to impairments of social functioning. Alterations in the immune system, as represented by cytokine levels, has been linked to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Among a variety of cytokines, TGF-β plays a role in several neural events, e.g., neurogenesis and synapse formation. To date, few studies have evaluated the relationship between cytokine concentrations and social functioning in subjects with ultra-high-risk state for psychosis (UHR). In this study, we investigated the ability of serum levels of TGF-β to predict the change of social functioning in UHR subjects.
Methods: Fifty-two UHR subjects were recruited at 7 hospitals. We measured social function with the specific levels of functioning scale (SLOF) at baseline, 4, 16, 28, 40 and 52 weeks after sampling blood to measure TGF-β levels.
Results: TGF-β1 concentration at baseline was correlated with changes from baseline in the SLOF scores at 4, 28, and 40 weeks. Mixed model for repeated measures analyses revealed that serum levels of TGF-β1 at baseline associated positively with changes from baseline in the SLOF scores, which was most evident at the 40-week time point.
Conclusions: These results suggest that peripheral levels of TGF-β1 might be associated with longitudinal course of functional outcomes in UHR subjects.

Accepted Manuscript [Submitted on 2024-11-20, Accepted on 2025-02-17]