Immune and metabolic alterations in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients

•MIP-1b/CCL4, VEGF, IL-6 and PAI-1 were increased in FEP patients.•IL-17, ghrelin, glucagon and GLP-1 were decreased in FEP patients.•IL-8 is increased only in FEP patients with a diagnosis of affective psychosis.•The more informative markers to discriminate FEP patients were MIP-1b/CCL4, ghrelin, glucagon, VEGF and GLP-1.•These data evidence a profile of immune and metabolic alterations in FEP patients. The molecular underpinnings associated to first episode psychosis (FEP) remains to be elucidated, but compelling evidence supported an association of FEP with blood alterations in biomarkers related to immune system, growth factors and metabolism regulators. Many of these studies have not been already confirmed in larger samples or have not considered the FEP diagnostic subgroups. In order to identify biochemical signatures of FEP, the serum levels of the growth factors BDNF and VEGF, the immune regulators IL-1RA, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-17, RANTES/CCL5, MIP-1b/CCL4, IL-8 and the metabolic regulators C-peptide, ghrelin, GIP, GLP-1, glucagon, insulin, leptin, PAI-1, resistin and visfatin were analysed in 260 subjects collected in the GET UP project. The results indicated an increase of MIP-1b/CCL4, VEGF, IL-6 and PAI-1, while IL-17, ghrelin, glucagon and GLP-1 were decreased in the whole sample of FEP patients (p