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Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study

Previous studies reported significantly altered tryptophan catabolite concentrations in major depression. Thus, tryptophan catabolites were considered as potential biomarkers of depression and their modulators as potential targets for psychopharmacotherapy. However, the results were based mainly on...

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Autores principales: Michal, Matthias, Schulz, Andreas, Wild, Philipp S., Koeck, Thomas, Münzel, Thomas, Schuster, Alexander K., Strauch, Konstantin, Lackner, Karl, Süssmuth, Sigurd D., Niessen, Heiko G., Borta, Andreas, Allers, Kelly A., Zahn, Daniela, Beutel, Manfred E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36631760
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04520-6
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author Michal, Matthias
Schulz, Andreas
Wild, Philipp S.
Koeck, Thomas
Münzel, Thomas
Schuster, Alexander K.
Strauch, Konstantin
Lackner, Karl
Süssmuth, Sigurd D.
Niessen, Heiko G.
Borta, Andreas
Allers, Kelly A.
Zahn, Daniela
Beutel, Manfred E.
author_facet Michal, Matthias
Schulz, Andreas
Wild, Philipp S.
Koeck, Thomas
Münzel, Thomas
Schuster, Alexander K.
Strauch, Konstantin
Lackner, Karl
Süssmuth, Sigurd D.
Niessen, Heiko G.
Borta, Andreas
Allers, Kelly A.
Zahn, Daniela
Beutel, Manfred E.
author_sort Michal, Matthias
collection PubMed
description Previous studies reported significantly altered tryptophan catabolite concentrations in major depression. Thus, tryptophan catabolites were considered as potential biomarkers of depression and their modulators as potential targets for psychopharmacotherapy. However, the results were based mainly on studies with small sample sizes limiting their generalizability. Against this background, we investigated the relationship of peripheral tryptophan catabolites with depression in a population-based sample with n = 3,389 participants (with fasting status ≥ 8 h and C-reactive protein < 10 mg/L). N = 248 had clinically significant depression according to a PHQ-9 score of ≥ 10, n = 1,101 subjects had mild depressive symptoms with PHQ-9 scores between 5 and 9, and n = 2,040 had no depression. After multivariable adjustment, clinically significant depression was associated with lower kynurenine and kynurenic acid. Spearman correlation coefficients of the tryptophan catabolites with the severity of depression were very small (rho ≤ 0.080, p ≤ 0.015). None of the tryptophan catabolites could diagnostically separate depressed from not depressed persons. Concerning linear associations, kynurenine and kynurenic acid were associated only with the severity and the cognitive dimension of depression but not its somatic dimension. Tryptophan catabolites were not associated with persistence or recurrence of depression at the 5 year follow-up. The results replicated the association between kynurenine and kynurenic acid with depression. However, the associations were small raising doubts about their clinical utility. Findings underline the complexity of the relationships between depression and tryptophan catabolites. The search for subgroups of depression with a potentially higher impact of depression might be warranted.
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spelling pubmed-98352772023-01-13 Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study Michal, Matthias Schulz, Andreas Wild, Philipp S. Koeck, Thomas Münzel, Thomas Schuster, Alexander K. Strauch, Konstantin Lackner, Karl Süssmuth, Sigurd D. Niessen, Heiko G. Borta, Andreas Allers, Kelly A. Zahn, Daniela Beutel, Manfred E. BMC Psychiatry Research Previous studies reported significantly altered tryptophan catabolite concentrations in major depression. Thus, tryptophan catabolites were considered as potential biomarkers of depression and their modulators as potential targets for psychopharmacotherapy. However, the results were based mainly on studies with small sample sizes limiting their generalizability. Against this background, we investigated the relationship of peripheral tryptophan catabolites with depression in a population-based sample with n = 3,389 participants (with fasting status ≥ 8 h and C-reactive protein < 10 mg/L). N = 248 had clinically significant depression according to a PHQ-9 score of ≥ 10, n = 1,101 subjects had mild depressive symptoms with PHQ-9 scores between 5 and 9, and n = 2,040 had no depression. After multivariable adjustment, clinically significant depression was associated with lower kynurenine and kynurenic acid. Spearman correlation coefficients of the tryptophan catabolites with the severity of depression were very small (rho ≤ 0.080, p ≤ 0.015). None of the tryptophan catabolites could diagnostically separate depressed from not depressed persons. Concerning linear associations, kynurenine and kynurenic acid were associated only with the severity and the cognitive dimension of depression but not its somatic dimension. Tryptophan catabolites were not associated with persistence or recurrence of depression at the 5 year follow-up. The results replicated the association between kynurenine and kynurenic acid with depression. However, the associations were small raising doubts about their clinical utility. Findings underline the complexity of the relationships between depression and tryptophan catabolites. The search for subgroups of depression with a potentially higher impact of depression might be warranted. BioMed Central 2023-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9835277/ /pubmed/36631760 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04520-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Michal, Matthias
Schulz, Andreas
Wild, Philipp S.
Koeck, Thomas
Münzel, Thomas
Schuster, Alexander K.
Strauch, Konstantin
Lackner, Karl
Süssmuth, Sigurd D.
Niessen, Heiko G.
Borta, Andreas
Allers, Kelly A.
Zahn, Daniela
Beutel, Manfred E.
Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title_full Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title_fullStr Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title_full_unstemmed Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title_short Tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the Gutenberg Health Study
title_sort tryptophan catabolites and depression in the general population: results from the gutenberg health study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36631760
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04520-6
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