Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti e del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 27/A, 43124 Parma, Italy.
Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia, Unità di Neuroscienze, Università degli Studi di Parma, via Gramsci 14, 43126 Parma, Italy.
Nutrients. 2017 Sep 22;9(10):1053. doi: 10.3390/nu9101053.
Trimethylamine--oxide (TMAO) is a small organic molecule, derived from the intestinal and hepatic metabolism of dietary choline and carnitine. Although the involvement of TMAO in the framework of many chronic diseases has been recently described, no evidence on its putative role in the central nervous system has been provided. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether TMAO is present at detectable levels in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF was collected for diagnostic purposes from 58 subjects by lumbar puncture and TMAO was quantified by using liquid chromatography coupled with multiple-reaction monitoring mass spectrometry. The molecule was detected in all samples, at concentrations ranging between 0.11 and 6.43 µmol/L. Further analysis on CSF revealed that a total of 22 subjects were affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD), 16 were affected by non-AD related dementia, and 20 were affected by other neurological disorders. However, the stratification of TMAO levels according to the neurological diagnoses revealed no differences among the three groups. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence that TMAO can be assessed in human CSF, but the actual impact of this dietary metabolite in the patho-physiolgy of the central nervous system requires further study.
三甲胺氧化物（TMAO）是一种小分子有机化合物，来源于膳食胆碱和肉碱在肠道和肝脏中的代谢。尽管 TMAO 在许多慢性疾病的发病机制中的作用最近已被描述，但尚未提供其在中枢神经系统中可能作用的证据。本研究旨在评估 TMAO 是否以可检测的水平存在于人脑脊液（CSF）中。通过腰椎穿刺采集了 58 名受试者的 CSF 用于诊断目的，并通过液相色谱-串联质谱法检测 TMAO。该分子在所有样本中均被检测到，浓度范围在 0.11 和 6.43 µmol/L 之间。对 CSF 的进一步分析表明，共有 22 名受试者患有阿尔茨海默病（AD），16 名患有非 AD 相关痴呆症，20 名患有其他神经疾病。然而，根据神经诊断对 TMAO 水平的分层并未显示出三组之间的差异。总之，我们提供了 TMAO 可在人 CSF 中评估的首个证据，但这种饮食代谢物对中枢神经系统病理生理学的实际影响需要进一步研究。
