Gene expression of peripheral blood lymphocytes may discriminate patients with schizophrenia from controls

To identify a classifier in schizophrenia, blood gene expression profiling was applied to patients with schizophrenia under different treatments and to controls. Expression of six genes discriminated patients with sensitivity of 89.3% and specificity of 90%, supporting the use of peripheral blood as biological material for diagnosis in schizophrenia.
We thank Biobank of A.C. Camargo Hospital for RNA extraction of the samples. We also thank the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia/FEDER (Portugal) grant POCI/SAU-ESP/58757/2004, the GRICES/CAPES International Collaborative Program (Portugal, Brazil) and the FIPE- HCPA for financial support.