US Patent 7354991 Peptides for the diagnosis of schizophrenia

Short peptides are provided, which bind to a body fluid sample obtained from a schizophrenic patient at a substantively higher level than to a body fluid sample obtained from a non-schizophrenic individual. The peptides are no more than 10 amino acids long and comprise a continuous sequence of at least 5 amino acids which consists of at least one positively charged amino acid at one of its ends. The provided peptides, which are the putative binding sites of autoantibodies found in high levels in schizophrenic individuals, are thus useful in diagnosis of schizophrenia.