Elevated peripheral Neuregulin-1 protein levels in non-medicated focal epilepsy patients

•Neuregulin 1 (NRG-1) has a crucial function in the nervous system development.•Schizophrenia and epilepsy may share the same susceptibility genes.•NRG-1 protein expression levels are elevated in non-medicated first-onset focal epilepsy patients.•Females have higher NRG-1 protein levels than males.•NRG-1 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. The Neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) gene has been identified as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and epilepsy shared some common clinical manifestations and common pathogenesis. Therefore, it is necessary to explore whether there is a relationship between NRG-1 and epilepsy. This study aimed to investigate the expression level of NRG-1 in peripheral blood of non-medicated patients with first-onset focal epilepsy. A total of 83 non-medicated first-onset focal epilepsy patients and 80 healthy controls were involved in this study. Serum NRG-1 protein levels were determined by ELISA. Compared to healthy controls (mean ± SD, 3.97 ± 2.37), NRG-1 protein levels were statistically significantly higher in patients (mean ± SD, 5.37 ± 3.48) (P = 0.006). Our findings suggest that NRG-1 protein may play a role in the pathogenesis of focal epilepsy, which provides insights into the search for epilepsy potential therapeutic markers and new drug treatment targets.