Comparison of IL-13 and IL-27 levels between schizophrenics and healthy subjects before and after antipsychotic administration

Many new evidences suggest cytokine activities involvement in pathogenicity of schizophrenia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the serum levels of IL-13 and 27 in schizophrenics, and then compares them with those of healthy individuals. This project was conducted in 2013. First, the patients and the controls were matched based on their sex and age, then serum levels of IL-13 and 27 ( ELISA) were measured at the beginning of treatment with antipsychotics, Once more, after completion of antipsychotic administration for three months, the interleukins were assayed. The results indicated that IL-13 levels in the male and female patients before treatment were significantly higher than their respective control groups ( P = 0.001and P = 0.002). The amount of this cytokine three month after the treatment, showed no significant difference between the two groups ( P = 0.965 and P = 0.205). The results also revealed that IL-27 levels in female patients had no significant increase before the treatment comparing to their associated control group ( P = 0.625) and serum level of the cytokine in male patients was significantly low before the treatment comparing to their control subjects ( p= 0.009). Serum level of this cytokine demonstrated no significant difference between the patients and their control groups based on their age and sex after treating for three months ( P - 0.325 and P - 0.744). The results indicated that serum levels of IL-13 and IL-27 before and after the treatment were different and treating with antipsychotics returned IL-13 and IL-27 serum levels of the patients to the same level of the controls.