Antinuclear antibodies profiling in Moroccan patients with schizophrenia: A single center study

The present study investigates the prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies among Moroccan patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls and examines the potential associations between the presence of antinuclear autoantibodies and selected sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with schizophrenia.

A cross-sectional assessment was conducted between May 2020 and December 2022. The study involved a total of 157 patients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted to the Ar-Razi Psychiatric Hospital of Ibn Sina University Hospital Center of Rabat, Morocco. A total of 115 healthy controls (blood donors) were recruited from the transfusion center of Kenitra, Morocco. Antinuclear autoantibodies screening was performed by an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using HEp-2 cells/liver (Monkey), and 16 specificities of nuclear antigens (ENA) were tested using immunodot assay on an automated platform.

The prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies was significantly higher in patients as compared to healthy control (35 vs. 12.7% with P<0.05) suggesting strongly underlying autoimmune processes in the studied patients. Among the 55 samples tested positive for antinuclear autoantibodies in patients, a total of 29 samples had a positive immunodot result against the following antigens: Jo1, SSA, SSB, Ro 52, AMA-M2, PM-Scl, Sm and Sm/RNP. Logistic regression analysis identified tobacco consumption as the only significant predictor of positive antinuclear autoantibodies (B=2.179, P=0.018).

This preliminary study provides original data on the prevalence of antinuclear autoantibodies in Moroccan patients with schizophrenia and reveals a strong association between tobacco consumption and antinuclear autoantibodies positivity. The present findings replicate the previously reported association between autoimmune processes and schizophrenia in other geographical areas and warrant extension to other circulating autoantibodies towards a full profiling of autoimmunity in Moroccan patients with schizophrenia.