Department of Psychiatry, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Biomedical Science, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 29;7(1):9707. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-10100-y.
Substance P (SP) has been implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD), with SP antagonists being studied as potential antidepressants. Although impaired neural plasticity is considered a key mechanism in MDD pathophysiology, the association between SP and brain structural changes in depression has not been investigated. We investigated the correlations between SP levels and white matter (WM) integrity in 42 medication-naive patients with MDD and 57 healthy controls (HCs). Plasma levels of SP were determined, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was performed to investigate microstructural changes in WM tracts. In patients, negative correlations between SP levels and fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the forceps minor of the corpus callosum, and positive correlations between SP levels and radial diffusivity (RD) and mean diffusivity (MD) values of the right corticospinal tract (CST) were observed, with no significant correlations in HCs. Linear regression analyses showed SP levels to significantly predict FA values of the forceps minor, and RD and MD values of the right CST in patients, but not in HCs. We consider our findings to contribute to the neurobiological evidence on the association between SP and brain structural changes in depression, which may be related with the pathophysiology and treatment of MDD.
P 物质（SP）与重度抑郁症（MDD）有关，SP 拮抗剂被研究为潜在的抗抑郁药。尽管神经可塑性受损被认为是 MDD 病理生理学的关键机制，但 SP 与抑郁时大脑结构变化之间的关系尚未得到研究。我们研究了 42 名未经药物治疗的 MDD 患者和 57 名健康对照者（HCs）的 SP 水平与白质（WM）完整性之间的相关性。测定了血浆 SP 水平，并进行了弥散张量成像（DTI）以研究 WM 束的微观结构变化。在患者中，SP 水平与胼胝体压部的分数各向异性（FA）值之间存在负相关，与右侧皮质脊髓束（CST）的 RD 和 MD 值之间存在正相关，而在 HCs 中则无显著相关性。线性回归分析显示，SP 水平可显著预测患者的胼胝体压部 FA 值以及右侧 CST 的 RD 和 MD 值，但在 HCs 中则无此相关性。我们认为我们的发现有助于提供有关 SP 与抑郁时大脑结构变化之间关联的神经生物学证据，这可能与 MDD 的病理生理学和治疗有关。
