Cytokines production in chronic schizophrenia patients with or without paranoid behaviour

1. Several immunological abnormalities have been found in schizophrenia but their significance still remains largely unknown. In this study the authors analyzed mitogen-stimulated interleukin (IL)-2, Interferon gamma (IFN)-gamma and IL-10 (type 2 cytokine) production in a sample of 37 chronic schizophrenic patients as compared with a sample of 40 age and sex-matched controls with the aim to evaluate whether patients belonging to different diagnostic subtypes (i..e. paranoid patients vs non paranoid patients) could be immunologically different from each other. 2. The findings indicate that paranoid patients produce less IL-10 than the others and thus, from an immunological viewpoint, they are more similar to healthy controls. 3. Furthermore, neuroleptic medications were observed to differently affect IL-2 production; this preliminary finding might stimulate further studies aiming to get a link between different drug profile of action both in terms of clinical and receptorial profile and different immunological effects.