Department of Psychosis Studies, King's College London, London, UK.
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.
Brain Behav Immun. 2017 Nov;66:221-229. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2017.07.002. Epub 2017 Jul 8.
Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), a non-specific biomarker of systemic bodily inflammation, has been associated with more pronounced cognitive impairments in adults with psychiatric disorders, particularly in the domains of memory and executive function. Whether this association is present in early life (i.e., the time at which the cognitive impairments that characterise these disorders become evident), and is specific to those with emerging psychiatric disorders, has yet to be investigated. To this end, we examined the association between salivary CRP and cognitive function in children aged 11-14years and explored the moderating effect of psychopathology. The study utilised data from an established longitudinal investigation of children recruited from the community (N=107) that had purposively over-sampled individuals experiencing psychopathology (determined using questionnaires). CRP was measured in saliva samples and participants completed assessments of cognition (memory and executive function) and psychopathology (internalising and externalising symptoms and psychotic-like experiences). Linear regression models indicated that higher salivary CRP was associated with poorer letter fluency (β=-0.24, p=0.006) and scores on the inhibition (β=-0.28, p=0.004) and inhibition/switching (β=-0.36, p<0.001) subtests of the colour-word interference test, but not with performance on any of the memory tasks (working, visual, and verbal memory tasks). Results were largely unchanged after adjustment for psychopathology and no significant interactions between CRP and psychopathology were observed on any cognitive measure. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that elevated salivary CRP is associated with poorer cognitive function in early life, but that this association is not moderated by concurrent psychopathology. These findings have implications for early intervention strategies that attempt to ameliorate cognitive deficits associated with emerging psychiatric disorders. Further research is needed to determine whether salivary CRP levels can be used as a valid marker of peripheral inflammation among healthy adolescents.
C 反应蛋白（CRP）升高是全身性炎症的非特异性生物标志物，与患有精神障碍的成年人认知障碍更为明显有关，特别是在记忆和执行功能领域。这种关联是否存在于生命早期（即这些疾病特征的认知障碍变得明显的时间），并且是否特定于那些出现精神障碍的人，尚未得到研究。为此，我们检查了 11-14 岁儿童唾液 CRP 与认知功能之间的关系，并探讨了精神病理学的调节作用。该研究利用了一项从社区招募儿童的既定纵向研究的数据（N=107），该研究有意对经历精神病理学的个体进行了过采样（通过问卷确定）。在唾液样本中测量 CRP，参与者完成了认知（记忆和执行功能）和精神病理学（内化和外化症状和类精神病体验）的评估。线性回归模型表明，唾液 CRP 水平较高与字母流畅性较差相关（β=-0.24，p=0.006），并且在颜色-单词干扰测试的抑制（β=-0.28，p=0.004）和抑制/转换（β=-0.36，p<0.001）子测试中的得分较低，但与任何记忆任务（工作记忆、视觉记忆和言语记忆任务）的表现无关。调整精神病理学后，结果基本不变，在任何认知测量上，CRP 与精神病理学之间均未观察到显著的相互作用。我们的研究结果初步表明，唾液 CRP 升高与生命早期认知功能较差有关，但这种关联不受并发精神病理学的调节。这些发现对试图改善与新兴精神障碍相关的认知缺陷的早期干预策略具有重要意义。需要进一步的研究来确定唾液 CRP 水平是否可以作为健康青少年外周炎症的有效标志物。
