Immune System Dysregulation and Autoimmunity in Schizophrenia: IgGs from Sera of Patients with Several Catalytic Activities

Abstract

Schizophrenia is usually a progressive mental illness with very different polymorphic symptoms. Several different theories of schizophrenia were discussed; the causes of this disease are not yet clear. Destruction of DNA, RNA, and myelin basic protein (MBP) by inflammation caused by autoimmune reactions has been revealed. Healthy humans usually do not develop abzymes. It was shown that DNase, RNase, and MBP-hydrolyzing abzymes are easily detectable at the beginning of different autoim-mune diseases (AIDs). During the development of spontaneous and induced AIDs in mice, a specific reorganization of their immune system associated with the generation of abzymes hydrolyzing different autoantigens was revealed. SCZ is currently not assigned to classical autoimmune diseases. However, the sera of approximately 30% of SCZ patients demonstrated a high level of anti-DNA Abs (comparing to 37% of SLE patients); abzymes hydrolyzing DNA, RNA, and MBP were revealed in 80-100% of SCZ patients. The site-specific hydrolysis of four known SCZ-specific microRNA playing an important role in the regulation of several genes functioning was revealed. Anti-MBP IgGs hydrolyze specifically only MBP but not other proteins. The data indicate that SCZ patients may to a certain extent show similar to SLE and MS patients' typical signs of autoimmune processes.