Activation of brain interleukin-1β in schizophrenia

The underlying pathophysiological cause of schizophrenia is essentially unknown. Increasing evidence suggests that immunological processes may contribute to the etiology of the disease. Owing to the lack of direct evidence of an infectious cause of schizophrenia much attention has been directed towards cytokines; molecules that initiate immunological responses. However, previous studies measuring the level of cytokines in the serum of patients with schizophrenia have provided an inconsistent picture in this regard. 1 The relatively few studies focusing on the level of cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been limited to a restricted number of cytokines analysed, to the lack of a control group of healthy volunteers or to the sensitivity of the cytokine assays used. Here, a sensitive assay was used to analyse the CSF concentration of well-characterized cytokines in first-episode patients with schizophrenia and age-matched healthy volunteers.