TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) levels in schizophrenia

• The protein TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis is a member of the TNF superfamily.
• TWEAK has proinflammatory and vascular permeability increasing actions.
• TWEAK has importance in pathological central nervous system processess.
• This is the first study that investigates TWEAK levels of patients with schizophrenia.
• TNF superfamily members have roles in immune hypotheses of schizophrenia.

Members of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily have roles in many biological events and pathogenesis of central nervous system (CNS) diseases. A relatively recently found member of this family, TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) have importance both in development of pathological CNS processes and as a target for the treatment of these diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate whether TWEAK's plasma levels are different in patients with schizophrenia. For this purpose plasma TWEAK levels of 44 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and control group of 40 healthy individuals were compared. Although numerical difference was found between TWEAK levels of patients and controls it was not statistically significant. When we tested for female and male patients and controls seperately, TWEAK levels of male patients were significantly lower than male controls. As far as we know this is the first study that investigates levels of TWEAK in patients with schizophrenia. Although we did not find statistically significant results in our study, we believe that difference could be found in future studies with higher number of subjects. Researches with non-studied TNF superfamily members like TWEAK and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) could contribute to the understanding of immune-cytokine related hypotheses of schizophrenia.