ABSTRACT
Objective To detect the mRNA expression levels of PI3KCB and AKT1 genes in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of acute and chronic schizophrenia patients in different stages,and to explore the relationship between them and the clinic symptoms.Methods Twenty-four cases of schizophrenia patients without medication for at least 1 month,19 chronic schizophrenia patients with long-term clozapine medication,and 20 normal controls were involved in the study.The mRNA expression of PI3KCB and AKT1 genes of all the subjects were measured by real-time qRT-PCR,and the positive and negative symptom scales (PANSS) of schizophrenia patients were also evaluated.Spearman's correlation was used to analyze the relationship between PI3KCB,AKT1 and PANSS score.Results The gene expression of PI3KCB in acute schizophrenia patients,chronic schizophrenia patients with clozapine medication and normal control were (0.79±0.04),(0.83±0.08) and (0.87±0.09) respectively,and the difference was significant among the three groups (F=8.77,P=0.001).The AKT1 gene expression levels were (0.80±0.03),(0.27±0.13)and (0.29±0.12) respectively,and the difference was also significant among the three groups (F=302.31,P＜0.01).The PI3KCB mRNA levels of acute schizophrenia patients were significantly lower than the levels in healthy controls (MD =0.09,P=0.002),and the AKT1 mRNA levels of acute schizophrenia patients were significantly higher than the levels in chronic schizophrenia patients (MD=0.53,P＜0.01) and healthy controls (MD =0.51,P＜ 0.01).In schizophrenia patients,no significant relationship was found between PI3KCB,AKT1 expression levels and PANSS scores.Conclusion The gene expression status of PI3K-AKT pathway is significantly different in different stages of acute and chronic schizophrenia and that is no significant relationship with clinic symptoms,and clozapine treatment may affect its gene expression levels.