Differences in cerebrospinal fluid proteins between patients with schizophrenia and normal persons.

A survey of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins from normal persons and patients with schizophrenia reveals differences between the two populations. Computer-assisted densitometry of 68 proteins, resolved by two-dimensional electrophoresis and made visible by silver staining, shows six changes. Compared with their occurrence in the normal group, two proteins are increased in the schizophrenic patients by 22% and 27%, while four proteins are decreased by 29%, 46%, 20%, and 37% (p less than 0.005). Furthermore, two additional 40 000-Da proteins are found in CSF from 31.5% of the schizophrenic patients. Although these disease-associated proteins have not yet been found in 12 other neurological and psychiatric conditions, they have been found in patients with herpes simplex encephalitis (90%), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (67%), multiple sclerosis (13%), Parkinson's disease (12%), and a single case of Guillain-Barré syndrome. These two 40 000-Da proteins have never been found in CSF from any of 99 normal persons.