Disclosed is an antibody which binds to aripiprazole, which can be used to detect aripiprazole in a sample such as in a competitive immunoassay method. The antibody can be used in a lateral flow assay device for point-of-care detection of aripiprazole, including multiplex detection of aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in a single lateral flow assay device.

The invention provides methods of identifying schizophrenia patients at risk for relapse. The invention also provides methods of early detection of schizophrenic relapse. The disclosed methods use monitoring of a subset of symptoms and/or one or more biomarkers. The symptom severity can be assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) parameters. The methods of the invention can be used to provide early intervention to decrease or prevent relapse in schizophrenia patients.

The invention relates to an antibody or fragment thereof and the use of the antibody in a method of treatment and/or diagnosis. The antibody or fragment thereof specifically binds to alpha-synuclein, including monomeric, oligomeric and fibril forms of alpha-synuclein; is not cross reactive with beta-synuclein or gamma-synuclein; specifically binds human, rat and mouse alpha-synuclein; binds nitrated, oxidized and phosphorylated forms of alpha-synuclein; and binds an epitope of human alpha synuclein comprising the sequence MPSEEGYQDYEPEA (SEQ ID NO:2). The method for diagnosing a neurodegenerative disease associated with alpha-synuclein or for detecting alpha-synuclein, comprises adding the antibody or fragment thereof to a biological sample from a subject, and detecting the presence or absence of a complex formed between alpha-synuclein and the antibody or fragment.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders, in particular, a biomarker for diagnosing psychiatric and neurological disorders; and a test kit and test method for psychiatric and neurological disorders. The inventors discovered that there is a significant increase in the concentration of free immunoglobulin chains and free immunoglobulin chains in the blood samples from patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. Consequently, the present invention provides a biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders that includes at least one selected from the group consisting of free immunoglobulin chains, free immunoglobulin chains, and fragments thereof. Using this biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders enables the psychiatric and neurological disorders to be easily tested and diagnosed with the blood samples from the subjects. The biomarker enables more effective tests and diagnoses to be conducted combining inflammatory cytokines in the blood of patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders.

A marker for determining a mental disease is provided. The marker can be used in an objective diagnosis of such a mental disease. The marker contains one or more enterobacteria of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus reuteri subgroup, Lactobacillus sakei subgroup, Atopobium cluster, Bacteroides fragilis group, Enterococcus, Clostridium coccoides group, Clostridium leptum subgroup, Staphylococcus, Clostridium perfringens, and Enterobacteriaceae.

The present invention provides a method of screening a mammal for the onset or predisposition to the onset of a neuropsychiatric disorder. More particularly, the present invention provides a method of screening a mammal for the onset or predisposition to the onset of schizophrenia by screening for a decrease in the functional level of protein 14-3-3. In a related aspect, the present invention also provides a means of monitoring a patient diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric disorder, such as schizophrenia, by screening for changes to functional levels of protein 14-3-3. This may be useful, for example, in the context of evaluating the effectiveness of a prophylactic or therapeutic treatment regime or otherwise monitoring the impact of physiological or metabolic changes which may occur in a patient. The method of the present invention is useful in a wide range of applications including, inter alia, providing a means of identifying mammals susceptible to the onset of a neuropsychiatric condition, such as a condition characterized by one or more symptoms of schizophrenia, thereby enabling the implementation of prophylactic or early therapeutic intervention in an effort to either minimize or prevent the onset of the condition. It also provides a means of confirming diagnoses which would otherwise be based solely on an assessment of positive and negative symptoms.

Disclosed is an antibody which binds to risperidone, which can be used to detect risperidone in a sample such as in a competitive immunoassay method. The antibody can be used in a lateral flow assay device for point-of-care detection of risperidone, including multiplex detection of aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in a single lateral flow assay device.

The invention utilizes virtual screening strategy to seek for current market drugs as anti-schizophrenia therapy drug repurposing. Drug repurposing strategy finds new uses other than the original medical indications of existing drugs. Finding new indications for such drugs will benefit patients who are in needs for a potential new therapy sooner since known drugs are usually with acceptable safety and pharmacokinetic profiles. In this study, repurposing marketed drugs for DAAO inhibitor as new schizophrenia therapy was performed with virtual screening on marketed drugs and its metabolites. The identified and available drugs and compounds were further confirmed with in vitro DAAO enzymatic inhibitory assay.

Disclosed is an antibody which binds to olanzapine, which can be used to detect olanzapine in a sample such as in a competitive immunoassay method. The antibody can be used in a lateral flow assay device for point-of-care detection of olanzapine, including multiplex detection of aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in a single lateral flow assay device.

Disclosed is an antibody which binds to risperidone, which can be used to detect risperidone in a sample such as in a competitive immunoassay method. The antibody can be used in a lateral flow assay device for point-of-care detection of risperidone, including multiplex detection of aripiprazole, quetiapine, olanzapine, and risperidone in a single lateral flow assay device.