Mass spectrometry identification of potential biomarker proteins in the 150-kD electrophoretic band in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing schizophrenia is primarily based on the presentation of defined signs and symptoms, none of which is pathognomonic for this group of syndromes. However, few significant genome-wide associations between schizophrenia and individual have detected. Protein profiling of candidate serum biomarkers in schizophrenia is therefore an area of great interest.

METHODS: In the present study, we used a combination of 7% polyethylene glycol (PEG) enrichment of immune complexes and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to separate abnormal band, then analyse the band with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS).

RESULTS: There is a special 150-kD electrophoretic band in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression relative to healthy controls (each 30 samples). Analysis of the band using LC-MS resulted in the identification of 11 serum proteins whose abundance was altered between patients and controls. Among them, 8 proteins (CFH, CFB, cDNA FLJ75416, zinc finger protein 729, isoform 2 of nidogen-1, diaphanous-1, cDNA FLJ77762, and cDNA FLJ58411) were up regulated, while one protein (isoform 1 of collagen alpha-1 (II) was down regulated in patients with schizophrenia, but only zinc finger protein 729 has statistics significance (P < .05). No differences were noted with regard to thrombospondin-1 or collagen alpha-2 (I) among the 3 groups. These proteins take part in several biological functions such as focal adhesion, complement cascades, ECM-receptor interaction, and Staphylococcus aureus infection.

CONCLUSIONS: The 150-kD electrophoretic band or zinc finger protein 729 may become biomarkers in patients with schizophrenia. In the future increasing sample size and function research of zinc finger protein 729 should be executed continuously.