Ong Samantha K, Husain Syeda F, Wee Hai Ning, Ching Jianhong, Kovalik Jean-Paul, Cheng Man Si, Schwarz Herbert, Tang Tong Boon, Ho Cyrus S
Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore 119228, Singapore.
Institute for Health Innovation and Technology (iHealthtech), National University of Singapore, Singapore 119276, Singapore.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Oct 25;11(11):1978. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11111978.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating condition with a high disease burden and medical comorbidities. There are currently few to no validated biomarkers to guide the diagnosis and treatment of MDD. In the present study, we evaluated the differences between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs) in terms of cortical haemodynamic responses during a verbal fluency test (VFT) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and serum amino acid profiles, and ascertained if these parameters were correlated with clinical characteristics.
Twenty-five (25) patients with MDD and 25 age-, gender-, and ethnicity-matched HCs were recruited for the study. Real-time monitoring of the haemodynamic response during completion of a VFT was quantified using a 52-channel NIRS system. Serum samples were analysed and quantified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for amino acid profiling. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to classify potential candidate biomarkers.
The MDD patients had lower prefrontal and temporal activation during completion of the VFT than HCs. The MDD patients had lower mean concentrations of oxy-Hb in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and lower serum histidine levels. When the oxy-haemoglobin response was combined with the histidine concentration, the sensitivity and specificity of results improved significantly from 66.7% to 73.3% and from 65.0% to 90.0% respectively, as compared to results based only on the NIRS response.
These findings demonstrate the use of combination biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis of MDD. This technique could be a useful approach to detect MDD with greater precision, but additional studies are required to validate the methodology.
重度抑郁症（MDD）是一种使人衰弱的疾病，疾病负担和医学合并症较高。目前几乎没有经过验证的生物标志物可用于指导MDD的诊断和治疗。在本研究中，我们使用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）和血清氨基酸谱评估了MDD患者与健康对照（HCs）在言语流畅性测试（VFT）期间皮质血流动力学反应的差异，并确定这些参数是否与临床特征相关。
招募了25名MDD患者和25名年龄、性别和种族匹配的HCs参与研究。使用52通道NIRS系统对VFT完成过程中的血流动力学反应进行实时监测。通过液相色谱 - 质谱法分析和定量血清样本中的氨基酸谱。采用受试者操作特征（ROC）曲线对潜在的候选生物标志物进行分类。
在完成VFT期间，MDD患者的前额叶和颞叶激活低于HCs。MDD患者左眶额皮质（OFC）中的氧合血红蛋白平均浓度较低，血清组氨酸水平也较低。当将氧合血红蛋白反应与组氨酸浓度相结合时，与仅基于NIRS反应的结果相比，结果的敏感性和特异性分别从66.7%显著提高到73.3%，从65.0%提高到90.0%。
这些发现证明了联合生物标志物在辅助MDD诊断中的应用。该技术可能是一种更精确检测MDD的有用方法，但需要更多研究来验证该方法。
