Mehta Sunil Q, Behl Supriya, Day Patrick L, Delgado Adriana M, Larson Nicholas B, Stromback Lindsay R, Huebner Andrea R, DeGrado Timothy R, Davis Jessica M, Jannetto Paul J, Howie Flora, Pandey Mukesh K
Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
Front Mol Neurosci. 2021 Apr 29;14:665686. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2021.665686. eCollection 2021.
Metal ion dyshomeostasis and disparate levels of biometals like zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and selenium (Se) have been implicated as a potential causative factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this study, we have enrolled 129 children (aged 2-4 years) in North America, of which 64 children had a diagnosis of ASD and 65 were controls. Hair, nail, and blood samples were collected and quantitatively analyzed for Zn, Cu and Se using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Of the analyzed biometals, serum Se (116.83 ± 14.84 mcg/mL) was found to be significantly lower in male ASD cases compared to male healthy controls (128.21 ± 9.11 mcg/mL; < 0.005). A similar trend was found for nail Se levels in ASD (1.01 ± 0.15 mcg/mL) versus that of controls (1.11 ± 0.17 mcg/mL) with a -value of 0.0132 using a stratified Wilcoxon rank sum testing. The level of Se in ASD cohort was co-analyzed for psychometric correlation and found a negative correlation between total ADOS score and serum Se levels. However, we did not observe any significant difference in Zn, Cu, and Zn/Cu ratio in ASD cases versus controls in this cohort of North American children. Further studies are recommended to better understand the biology of the relationship between Se and ASD status.
金属离子动态平衡失调以及锌（Zn）、铜（Cu）和硒（Se）等生物金属水平的差异，被认为是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的一个潜在致病因素。在本研究中，我们招募了129名北美2至4岁的儿童，其中64名儿童被诊断为ASD，65名作为对照。采集了头发、指甲和血液样本，并使用电感耦合等离子体质谱法（ICP-MS）对锌、铜和硒进行定量分析。在分析的生物金属中，发现男性ASD病例的血清硒（116.83±14.84 mcg/mL）显著低于男性健康对照（128.21±9.11 mcg/mL；<0.005）。使用分层Wilcoxon秩和检验，发现ASD患者指甲硒水平（1.01±0.15 mcg/mL）与对照组（1.11±0.17 mcg/mL）相比有类似趋势，p值为0.0132。对ASD队列中的硒水平进行了心理测量相关性分析，发现总ADOS评分与血清硒水平之间呈负相关。然而，在这组北美儿童中，我们没有观察到ASD病例与对照组在锌、铜和锌/铜比值上有任何显著差异。建议进一步研究以更好地了解硒与ASD状态之间关系的生物学机制。
