Serum Levels of PSPH and CXCL2 as Predictors of Treatment Response in Male Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Single-Center Retrospective Study

Objective To evaluate serum levels of Phosphoserine Phosphatase (PSPH) and Chemokine C-X-C Motif Ligand 2 (CXCL2) as biomarkers for predicting antipsychotic treatment response in male first-episode schizophrenia patients. Methods Bioinformatics analysis identified upregulated PSPH and CXCL2 expression in PBMCs of schizophrenia patients. Clinical data from 297 male patients (treated with olanzapine from 2019–2024) were retrospectively analyzed. After 4 weeks, patients were categorized into improvement (n=118) and non-improvement (n=179) groups. Serum PSPH and CXCL2 levels were measured by ELISA. Predictive value was assessed via ROC and multivariate logistic regression. Results Non-improvement group had higher PSPH/CXCL2 levels. Both biomarkers correlated positively with PANSS scores (r=0.249, 0.335; P <0.001). Logistic regression confirmed PSPH/CXCL2 levels, pre-treatment PANSS, shorter disease duration, and younger age as independent predictors ( P <0.05). Combined PSPH/CXCL2 showed superior predictive performance (AUC=0.823, P <0.05). Conclusion Serum levels of PSPH and CXCL2 can be considered as potential biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of antipsychotic treatment in male patients with first-episode schizophrenia.