Bio-X Institutes, Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Child Mental Health Research Center, Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Schizophr Res. 2022 Oct;248:32-34. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.07.017. Epub 2022 Aug 4.
Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in children and adolescents worldwide, but among the difficulties that pediatric mental health faces is a lack of objective biomarkers used for early identification or diagnosis. Studies to date indicate that niacin skin flushing response (NSFR) could be a biomarker for adult patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders. However, there are limited data on NSFR in pediatric patients with mental disorders. This study provides the first evidence of NSFR as a potential transdiagnostic marker in pediatric patients with schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), depressive disorder (DD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted 10-min niacin skin flush tests on 227 pediatric participants, including 59 SZ patients, 23 BD patients, 57 DD patients, 40 ASD patients and 48 healthy controls (HCs). Group, time and the concentrations of aqueous methyl nicotinate had significant effects on the flush scores. Pediatric patients with BD, DD, and SZ clustered together, while ASD patients appeared to be more similar with HCs. SZ, BD and DD groups had lower flush scores than HCs, while ASD group had higher scores than BD and DD groups. These findings suggested NSFR was blunted in pediatric SZ, BD and DD and was distinct in ASD from the other disease groups. Our data demonstrate NSFR could be a transdiagnostic marker for pediatric SZ, BD and DD, which would help to identify a subgroup of patients sharing dysfunctions of membrane phospholipids. Besides, NSFR might have potential for early identification of affective disorders from ASD.
精神障碍是全球儿童和青少年残疾的主要原因，但儿科精神健康面临的困难之一是缺乏用于早期识别或诊断的客观生物标志物。迄今为止的研究表明，烟酸皮肤潮红反应（NSFR）可能是精神分裂症和情感障碍成年患者的生物标志物。然而，关于精神障碍儿科患者的 NSFR 数据有限。本研究首次提供了 NSFR 作为精神分裂症（SZ）、双相情感障碍（BD）、抑郁障碍（DD）和自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿科患者潜在跨诊断标志物的证据。我们对 227 名儿科参与者进行了 10 分钟的烟酸皮肤潮红测试，包括 59 名 SZ 患者、23 名 BD 患者、57 名 DD 患者、40 名 ASD 患者和 48 名健康对照者（HCs）。组间、时间和烟酸甲酯水溶液的浓度对潮红评分有显著影响。BD、DD 和 SZ 的儿科患者聚在一起，而 ASD 患者似乎与 HCs 更为相似。SZ、BD 和 DD 组的潮红评分低于 HCs，而 ASD 组的评分高于 BD 和 DD 组。这些发现表明，NSFR 在儿科 SZ、BD 和 DD 中受到抑制，而在 ASD 中与其他疾病组明显不同。我们的数据表明，NSFR 可能是儿科 SZ、BD 和 DD 的跨诊断标志物，有助于识别共享膜磷酯功能障碍的患者亚群。此外，NSFR 可能有潜力从 ASD 中早期识别情感障碍。
