Lindqvist Daniel, Furmark Tomas, Lavebratt Catharina, Ohlsson Lars, Månsson Kristoffer N T
Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Office for Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatry Research Skåne, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2023 Feb;148:106001. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.106001. Epub 2022 Dec 7.
To investigate plasma levels of circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and healthy controls (HC).
In this study, 88 participants (46 patients with SAD and 42 HCs) were enrolled and both ccf-mtDNA and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) mtDNA copy number (mtDNA-cn) were measured at up to three times per individual (9-11 weeks apart). SAD patients also received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) between the second and third time-point.
SAD patients had significantly lower ccf-mtDNA compared to HCs at all time points, but ccf-mtDNA did not change significantly after CBT, and was not associated with severity of anxiety symptoms. Plasma ccf-mtDNA did not significantly correlate with PBMC mtDNA-cn in patients.
This is the first report of lower ccf-mtDNA in patients with an anxiety disorder. Our findings could reflect a more chronic illness course in SAD patients with prolonged periods of psychological stress leading to decreased levels of ccf-mtDNA, but future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis.
研究社交焦虑障碍（SAD）患者和健康对照者（HC）血浆中循环游离线粒体DNA（ccf-mtDNA）的水平。
本研究纳入了88名参与者（46名SAD患者和42名HC），每位参与者最多测量三次ccf-mtDNA和外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）线粒体DNA拷贝数（mtDNA-cn）（每次测量间隔9 - 11周）。SAD患者在第二次和第三次测量时间点之间还接受了认知行为疗法（CBT）。
在所有时间点，SAD患者的ccf-mtDNA均显著低于HC，但CBT后ccf-mtDNA无显著变化，且与焦虑症状的严重程度无关。患者血浆中的ccf-mtDNA与PBMC的mtDNA-cn无显著相关性。
这是关于焦虑症患者ccf-mtDNA水平降低的首次报道。我们的研究结果可能反映出SAD患者的病程更为慢性，长期的心理压力导致ccf-mtDNA水平下降，但未来需要进行纵向研究来证实或反驳这一假设。
