CSFSNAP-25 in schizophrenia and bipolar illness - A pilot study

Research efforts to identify and understand the pathophysiology of schizoph renia and bipolar illness are limited by the inability to study neuronal ti ssue of living patients. An alternative to sampling brain tissue from livin g patients is to measure neuronal proteins found in cerebral spinal fluid. One such candidate protein is synaptosomal-associated protein 25kDa. Our hy pothesis is that the level of this protein in cerebral spinal fluid may be a marker of neuronal pathology. Cerebral spinal fluid from headache, schizo phrenic, bipolar, and control subjects was used to measure the SNAP-25 leve l by quantitative dot blotting. Schizophrenic subjects had significantly el evated levels of SNAP-25 as compared to headache and control subjects. Howe ver, there was no significant difference between the bipolar group and schi zophrenic or control groups. This study reports on a potentially useful cli nical marker in schizophrenia, and the presence of elevated cerebral spinal fluid SNAP-25 may indicate alterations in neuronal functioning. [Neuropsyc hopharmacology 21:717-722, 1999] (C) 1999 American College of Neuropsychoph armacology. Published by Elsevier Science. Inc.