Abstract Schizophrenia (SCZ) remains an etiological and therapeutic challenge, this article aims to explore the mediating role of lncRNA between chronic childhood stress and SCZ for providing a scientific basis of SCZ prevention. 200 SCZ patients and 200 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled by convenience sampling. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Childhood Chronic Stress Questionaire (CCSQ) were employed for mental assessment. lncRNA and cortisol level in peripheral blood were respectively detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results showed scores of CCSQ, peer bullying (PB), abuse and neglect (AN), adverse life events (ALE) and cortisol were higher, while ΔCT values of NONHSAT089447 and NONHSAT021545 were lowered in SCZ patients ( P < 0.05 or 0.01). Area under the curve of combined receiver operating characteristic curve for NONHSAT089447, NONHSAT021545, NONHSAT041499 was 0.814 with sensitivity and specificity of being 0.650, 0.880, respectively. Correlation analysis suggested scores of CCSQ, PB, AN, ALE as well as cortisol positively and ΔCT values of NONHSAT089447, NONHSAT021545 negatively correlated with scores of PANSS, positive symptom subscale (PSS), negative symptom subscale (NSS), general pathological symptom subscale (GPSS) in SCZ group ( P < 0.05 or 0.01). NONHSAT089447 and NONHSAT021545 also played partial mediating roles between chronic childhood stress and psychotic symptoms with accounting proportions of 54.83% and 41.53% for total effect, respectively ( P < 0.001). Taken together, we established a new model for SCZ in which exposure to chronic childhood stress could induce pathological process via mediating effects of NONHSAT089447 and NONHSAT021545.
Mi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.