Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Divisions of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Brain Behav Immun. 2023 Jul;111:21-29. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.03.026. Epub 2023 Mar 31.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous condition that includes a broad range of characteristics and associated comorbidities; however, the biology underlying the variability in phenotypes is not well understood. As ASD impacts approximately 1 in 100 children globally, there is an urgent need to better understand the biological mechanisms that contribute to features of ASD. In this study, we leveraged rich phenotypic and diagnostic information related to ASD in 2001 individuals aged 4 to 17 years from the Simons Simplex Collection to derive phenotypically driven subgroups and investigate their respective metabolomes. We performed hierarchical clustering on 40 phenotypes spanning four ASD clinical domains, resulting in three subgroups with distinct phenotype patterns. Using global plasma metabolomic profiling generated by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, we characterized the metabolome of individuals in each subgroup to interrogate underlying biology related to the subgroups. Subgroup 1 included children with the least maladaptive behavioral traits (N = 862); global decreases in lipid metabolites and concomitant increases in amino acid and nucleotide pathways were observed for children in this subgroup. Subgroup 2 included children with the highest degree of challenges across all phenotype domains (N = 631), and their metabolome profiles demonstrated aberrant metabolism of membrane lipids and increases in lipid oxidation products. Subgroup 3 included children with maladaptive behaviors and co-occurring conditions that showed the highest IQ scores (N = 508); these individuals had increases in sphingolipid metabolites and fatty acid byproducts. Overall, these findings indicated distinct metabolic patterns within ASD subgroups, which may reflect the biological mechanisms giving rise to specific patterns of ASD characteristics. Our results may have important clinical applications relevant to personalized medicine approaches towards managing ASD symptoms.
自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 是一种异质性疾病,包括广泛的特征和相关的共病;然而,表型变异性背后的生物学基础还不是很清楚。由于 ASD 影响全球大约每 100 个儿童中的 1 个,因此迫切需要更好地了解导致 ASD 特征的生物学机制。在这项研究中,我们利用来自 Simons Simplex Collection 的 2001 名 4 至 17 岁个体的丰富的与 ASD 相关的表型和诊断信息,推导出表型驱动的亚组,并研究它们各自的代谢组。我们对跨越四个 ASD 临床领域的 40 个表型进行层次聚类,得到具有不同表型模式的三个亚组。使用超高效液相色谱质谱产生的全局血浆代谢组学分析,我们对每个亚组中的个体的代谢组进行了表征,以研究与亚组相关的潜在生物学。亚组 1 包括行为特征适应性最差的儿童(N=862);该亚组儿童的脂质代谢物整体减少,同时氨基酸和核苷酸途径增加。亚组 2 包括所有表型领域挑战最大的儿童(N=631),他们的代谢组谱显示膜脂质代谢异常和脂质氧化产物增加。亚组 3 包括行为失调且伴有共存病症的儿童,他们的智商得分最高(N=508);这些个体的鞘脂代谢物和脂肪酸副产物增加。总体而言,这些发现表明 ASD 亚组内存在不同的代谢模式,这可能反映了导致特定 ASD 特征模式的生物学机制。我们的研究结果可能具有重要的临床应用价值,有助于针对 ASD 症状的个性化医学方法。