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L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder

The lack of biomarkers greatly limits the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Endogenous L-carnitine (LC) and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) play antidepressant roles by improving brain energy metabolism, regulating neurotransmitters and neural plasticity. The levels...

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Autores principales: Nie, Li-Juan, Liang, Jun, Shan, Feng, Wang, Bao-Shi, Mu, Yuan-Yuan, Zhou, Xie-Hai, Xia, Qing-Rong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8514700/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34658942
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.671151
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author Nie, Li-Juan
Liang, Jun
Shan, Feng
Wang, Bao-Shi
Mu, Yuan-Yuan
Zhou, Xie-Hai
Xia, Qing-Rong
author_facet Nie, Li-Juan
Liang, Jun
Shan, Feng
Wang, Bao-Shi
Mu, Yuan-Yuan
Zhou, Xie-Hai
Xia, Qing-Rong
author_sort Nie, Li-Juan
collection PubMed
description The lack of biomarkers greatly limits the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Endogenous L-carnitine (LC) and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) play antidepressant roles by improving brain energy metabolism, regulating neurotransmitters and neural plasticity. The levels of ALC in people and rodents with depression are significantly reduced. It is necessary to determine whether serum LC and ALC might be used as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD. Here, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was used to determine the concentration of LC and ALC in the serum of healthy controls and patients with MDD; among the latter, in patients who were responsive (effective group) and non-responsive (ineffective group) after 2 weeks of treatment. The diagnostic value of serum LC and ALC for MDD was assessed. Compared with healthy controls, the serum LC and ALC concentrations in patients with MDD were significantly decreased (P < 0.001). Pearson correlation analysis shows that the HDRS-24 score was negatively associated with serum ALC (r = −0.325, P = 0.007). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.801 with 83.1% sensitivity and 66.3% specificity for LC, and an AUC of 0.898 with 88.8% sensitivity and 76.4% specificity for ALC, differentiating patients with MDD from healthy controls. Furthermore, the concentration of LC and ALC in patients with depression was significantly increased in the effective treatment group, and no significant change was observed in the ineffective treatment group. These results suggest that serum LC and ALC may be novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD.
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spelling pubmed-85147002021-10-15 L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder Nie, Li-Juan Liang, Jun Shan, Feng Wang, Bao-Shi Mu, Yuan-Yuan Zhou, Xie-Hai Xia, Qing-Rong Front Psychiatry Psychiatry The lack of biomarkers greatly limits the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Endogenous L-carnitine (LC) and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) play antidepressant roles by improving brain energy metabolism, regulating neurotransmitters and neural plasticity. The levels of ALC in people and rodents with depression are significantly reduced. It is necessary to determine whether serum LC and ALC might be used as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD. Here, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was used to determine the concentration of LC and ALC in the serum of healthy controls and patients with MDD; among the latter, in patients who were responsive (effective group) and non-responsive (ineffective group) after 2 weeks of treatment. The diagnostic value of serum LC and ALC for MDD was assessed. Compared with healthy controls, the serum LC and ALC concentrations in patients with MDD were significantly decreased (P < 0.001). Pearson correlation analysis shows that the HDRS-24 score was negatively associated with serum ALC (r = −0.325, P = 0.007). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.801 with 83.1% sensitivity and 66.3% specificity for LC, and an AUC of 0.898 with 88.8% sensitivity and 76.4% specificity for ALC, differentiating patients with MDD from healthy controls. Furthermore, the concentration of LC and ALC in patients with depression was significantly increased in the effective treatment group, and no significant change was observed in the ineffective treatment group. These results suggest that serum LC and ALC may be novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8514700/ /pubmed/34658942 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.671151 Text en Copyright © 2021 Nie, Liang, Shan, Wang, Mu, Zhou and Xia. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Nie, Li-Juan
Liang, Jun
Shan, Feng
Wang, Bao-Shi
Mu, Yuan-Yuan
Zhou, Xie-Hai
Xia, Qing-Rong
L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title_full L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title_fullStr L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title_full_unstemmed L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title_short L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder
title_sort l-carnitine and acetyl-l-carnitine: potential novel biomarkers for major depressive disorder
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8514700/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34658942
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.671151
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