ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Neuroendocrine Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1551172
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Neuroendocrine Mechanisms in Psychiatric and Metabolic ComorbiditiesView all 3 articles
Neuroendocrine Characterization into Schizophrenia: Norepinephrine and Melatonin as Promising Biomarkers
Provisionally accepted
- School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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Although brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has garnered extensive attention as a neuroendocrine marker in schizophrenia (SZ), its clinical utility remains limited due to inconsistent findings. To address this gap, this study explores the metabolism associated with SZ to identify more reliable and valuable biomarkers. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), we analyzed serum samples from 24 female patients with SZ and 25 healthy controls. Our results revealed that BDNF is not a robust discriminatory biomarker. Marked differences in metabolic profiles were identified between patients with SZ and healthy individuals. The GC-MS analysis revealed significant differences in 79 metabolites; while the LC-MS analysis identified 419 significantly differential metabolites.Functional analysis reveals that these differential metabolites predominantly contribute to metabolic and neuro-related processes. Our findings demonstrate that norepinephrine and melatonin, two additional neuroendocrine compounds, are significantly elevated in patients with SZ compared to healthy controls. Notably, their higher areas under the curve (AUC) values compared to BDNF highlight their potential as more reliable biomarkers for SZ. This study offers valuable insights into the altered metabolic patterns of female patients with SZ and establishes melatonin and norepinephrine as promising neuroendocrine biomarkers, underscoring their diagnostic value and role in the neuroendocrine regulation of mental disorders.
Keywords: Schizophrenia, Neuroendocrine marker, BDNF, Norepinephrine, Melatonin, Metabolism
Received: 24 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Li, Zhong, Jiechun, Qin, Chen and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fazhan Chen, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Xudong Zhao, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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