Characterization of modified proteins in plasma from a subtype of schizophrenia based on carbonyl stress: Protein carbonyl is a possible biomarker of psychiatric disorders.

Although it's well known that protein carbonyl (PCO) and advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) levels are elevated in plasma from patients with renal dysfunction, we recently identified patients who had no renal dysfunction but possessed high levels of plasma pentosidine (PEN), which is an AGEs, and low vitamin B6 levels in serum. In this study, we investigated the status of carbonyl stress to characterize the subtype of schizophrenia. When plasma samples were subjected to Western blot analysis for various AGEs, clear differences were only observed with the anti-PEN antibody in the plasma from schizophrenic patients. Moreover, we determined the formation of protein carbonyl (PCO), a typical indicator of carbonyl stress, occurred prior to the accumulation of PEN in the plasma of schizophrenic patients. PCO levels in the plasma from schizophrenic patients were significantly higher than that from healthy subjects. Western blots analysis clearly showed that albumin and IgG were markedly carbonylated in the plasma of some patients. Thus, PCOs may be a novel marker of carbonyl stress-type schizophrenia in addition to albumin containing PEN structure.