Brain Biomarker on Inflammation Response

Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are a major public health burden due to functional and cognitive impairment, psychosis and other symptoms, and high comorbidity. Unfortunately, current therapies have limited effectiveness in treating some of the symptoms and most of the cognitive deficits. Alternative biological models of the disease are needed for developing new and more effective treatment. Neuroinflammation has increasingly been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia have signs of low-grade, chronic inflammation, including elevated blood levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and other immune markers. Administration of LPS is the standard immune challenge to investigate the body's immune response in a wide range of disorders. Our goal is to use LPS to investigate whether schizophrenia patients have abnormal immune response to LPS and whether the abnormality is associated with specific brain imaging biomarkers.