Tryptophan-kynurenine and lipid related metabolites as blood biomarkers for first-episode drug-naïve patients with major depressive disorder: An exploratory pilot case-control study.
J Affect Disord
; 231: 74-82, 2018 04 15.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29454180
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Early intervention in depression has been critical to prevent its negative impact including suicide. Recent blood biomarker studies for major depressive disorder (MDD) have suggested that tryptophan-kynurenine and lipid related metabolites are involved in the pathophysiology of MDD. However, there have been limited studies investigating these blood biomarkers in first-episode drug-naïve MDD, which are particularly important for early intervention in depression.METHODS:
As an exploratory pilot case-control study, we examined the above blood biomarkers, and analyzed how these biomarkers are associated with clinical variables in first-episode drug-naïve MDD patients, based on metabolome/lipidome analysis.RESULTS:
Plasma tryptophan and kynurenine levels were significantly lower in MDD group (N = 15) compared to healthy controls (HC) group (N = 19), and plasma tryptophan was the significant biomarker to identify MDD group (area under the curve = 0.740). Lower serum high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) was the predictive biomarker for severity of depression in MDD group (R2 = 0.444). Interestingly, depressive symptoms were variously correlated with plasma tryptophan-kynurenine and lipid related metabolites. Moreover, plasma tryptophan-kynurenine metabolites and cholesteryl esters (CEs) were significantly correlated in MDD group, but not in HC group.LIMITATIONS:
This study had small sample size, and we did not use the multiple test correction.CONCLUSIONS:
This is the first study to suggest that not only tryptophan-kynurenine metabolites but also HDL-C and CEs are important blood biomarkers for first-episode drug-naïve MDD patients. The present study sheds new light on early intervention in clinical practice in depression, and further clinical studies especially large-scale prospective studies are warranted.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tryptophan
/
Depressive Disorder, Major
/
Kynurenine
/
Lipids
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Affect Disord
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Japan