Haoran Chu,* Houming Zhu,* Jiashu Ma, Yijia Jiang, Cuicui Cui, Xianxia Yan, Qin Li, Xinyan Zhang, Diancai Chen, Xianwei Li, Ranran Li

Department of Psychiatry, Shandong Mental Health Center, Shandong University, Jinan, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Ranran Li, Department of Psychiatry, Shandong Mental Health Center, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18678777190, Email dtlrr113@126.com

Objective: This paper aims to explore the expression characteristics of mitochondrial function-related genes in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (SCZ)and the correlation between differentially expressed genes and clinical metabolic indicators.
Methods: Twenty patients with first-episode SCZ who had not taken antipsychotic drugs (patient group) and twenty healthy controls (control group) were included. Quantitative real-time PCR technology was used to detect the expression levels of genes related to mitochondrial quality control and oxidative phosphorylation in peripheral blood leukocytes, and metabolic indicators such as blood biochemistry and blood glucose were collected.
Results: The gene expression levels of key genes related to mitochondrial function, PGC-1a, PARK2, and LC3B, in the patient group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the expression level of PGC-1a gene in the patient group was negatively correlated with very low-density lipoprotein levels (r =− 0.451), and the expression level of PARK2 gene in the patient group was negatively correlated with uric acid levels (r =− 0.447).
Conclusion: The expression levels of multiple key genes in the mitochondrial quality control and oxidative phosphorylation processes in patients with first-episode SCZ display a downward trend. The differentially expressed genes are correlated with the metabolic abnormalities of the patients, suggesting that mitochondrial dysfunction may be related to the high incidence of metabolic diseases in patients with SCZ.

Keywords: first-episode, schizophrenia, drug naive, mitochondria dysfunction, metabolic indicators, metabolic indicators