Altered plasma concentrations of tau protein metabolites in patients with early onset of psychosis
Poster A72, Thursday, October 20, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Neil Cleland1, Dorota Klaczkowska1, Hannes Bohman1, Ingrid Agartz2, Mathias Lundberg1; 1Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, 2University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Early onset of psychosis (EOP), including early onset of schizophrenia (EOS) and affective non-schizophrenia psychotic disorders, are devastating mental disorders with an onset age before 18 years and with unknown etiology. Previous studies indicate that at onset of illness a severe loss of neurocognitive functions are observed. This has been suggested to be indicative of a pathogenesis involving a process of neurodegeneration. In neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer disease, neuronal neurodegenerative process is associated with increased neurodegenerative biomarkers in plasma and cerebrospinal fluids. Thus we investigated the involvement of a neurodegenerative process in EOP by analyzing the plasma levels of total tau (t-tau) and caspase cleaved tau (c-tau), markers previously associated with neurodegenerative processes in Alzheimer disease and traumatic brain injury. The plasma concentrations of t-tau and c-tau were measured in patients (n=20) vs controls (n=20) by sandwich ELISA. Our results show that the plasma levels of c-tau were significantly higher in patients than controls (p<0.018). However, no significant differences in the concentrations of t-tau were observed between patients and controls. This finding suggests that tau protein metabolism may be altered in EOP. The results may have implications for the understanding of the pathophysiology of EOP and for the development of novel treatment strategies.
Topic Area: First Episode Psychosis