Moxon-Emre Iska, Croarkin Paul E, Daskalakis Zafiris J, Blumberger Daniel M, Lyon Rachael E, Tani Hideaki, Truong Peter, Lai Meng-Chuan, Desarkar Pushpal, Sailasuta Napapon, Szatmari Peter, Ameis Stephanie H
Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, The Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M5T 1R8, Canada.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
Brain Sci. 2022 Jun 15;12(6):785. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12060785.
Suicidality is increased in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet effective interventions are lacking. Developing biologically based approaches for preventing and treating suicidality in ASD hinges on the identification of biomarkers of suicidal ideation (SI). Here, we assessed magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) markers of glutamatergic neurotransmission in ASD youth and young adults. Twenty-eight ASD participants (16-33 years) underwent H-MRS, and metabolites were quantified using LCModel. N-acetylaspartate (NAA), glutamate (Glu), and the NAA/Glu ratio from the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were compared between ASD SI+ ( = 13) and ASD SI- ( = 15) participants. We found that ASD SI+ participants had a higher NAA/Glu ratio compared ASD SI- participants. The NAA/Glu ratio also predicted SI and significantly discriminated between ASD SI+/SI- participants. All analyses including NAA and Glu alone were non-significant. Here, we provide preliminary evidence for the importance of NAA/Glu in ASD with SI, with implications for biomarker discovery. Further mechanistic research into risk and interventional approaches to address SI in ASD are needed.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者的自杀倾向增加，但缺乏有效的干预措施。开发基于生物学的方法来预防和治疗ASD患者的自杀倾向，关键在于识别自杀意念（SI）的生物标志物。在此，我们评估了ASD青少年和青年谷氨酸能神经传递的磁共振波谱（MRS）标志物。28名ASD参与者（16 - 33岁）接受了氢质子磁共振波谱（1H-MRS）检查，并使用LCModel对代谢物进行定量分析。比较了ASD伴自杀意念组（n = 13）和ASD无自杀意念组（n = 15）参与者左侧背外侧前额叶皮质的N-乙酰天门冬氨酸（NAA）、谷氨酸（Glu）以及NAA/Glu比值。我们发现，与ASD无自杀意念组参与者相比，ASD伴自杀意念组参与者的NAA/Glu比值更高。NAA/Glu比值还可预测自杀意念，并能显著区分ASD伴/无自杀意念组参与者。仅包括NAA和Glu的所有分析均无统计学意义。在此，我们为NAA/Glu在伴有自杀意念的ASD中的重要性提供了初步证据，这对生物标志物的发现具有启示意义。需要对ASD中自杀意念的风险和干预方法进行进一步的机制研究。
