A quantitative assessment of TRB CDR3-CMV antigen chemical interactions distinguishes schizophrenia patients in...

To further study the relationship between schizophrenia and cytomegalovirus (CMV), we analyzed adaptive immune receptor features related to CMV in schizophrenia cases and controls. Analyses were performed by calculating chemical complementarity scores (CSs) between T-cell receptor (TCR) complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3s) and known CMV antigens to determine whether there was a significant difference between CSs of schizophrenia cases and CSs of control cases. Results revealed that schizophrenia cases consistently had higher CSs for TRB CDR3-CMV antigen pairs than controls for multiple CMV antigens. These results raise the question of whether there is a difference in the immune response to CMV for the two populations and whether such a difference could be related to schizophrenia development? However, regardless of the connection to a pathological mechanism, these results indicate a pathway towards establishing a blood test to support, clarify or provide more precision for a schizophrenia diagnosis.