Omileke Favour, Ikegame Tempei, Tonsho Shimon, Mori Shunsuke, Shoji Eimu, Kiyota Masahiro, Minami Takuto, Kumagai Eureka, Asai Tatsuro, Kirihara Kenji, Koike Shinsuke, Jinde Seiichiro, Kamiya Kouhei, Abe Osamu, Kasai Kiyoto, Okada Naohiro
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Disability Services Office, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Schizophrenia (Heidelb). 2025 Aug 7;11(1):111. doi: 10.1038/s41537-025-00657-3.
Previous studies on metabolic profiling have shown decreased plasma levels of betaine in schizophrenia. Betaine serves as a substrate of betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase, which converts homocysteine to methionine. A decrease in betaine may lead to the elevation of homocysteine and an insufficient supply of methyl donors, which may affect DNA methylation. To explore how decreased betaine levels could affect brain structural changes often observed in schizophrenia, the present study investigated the relationships in 27 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 49 healthy comparison individuals. We found that the effects of betaine on brain volume are group-specific, and significant correlations between betaine and notable brain areas implicated in schizophrenia's pathophysiology including the superior temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that betaine levels may contribute to aberrant structural changes in schizophrenia.
以往关于代谢谱的研究表明，精神分裂症患者血浆中甜菜碱水平降低。甜菜碱是甜菜碱-同型半胱氨酸甲基转移酶的底物，该酶可将同型半胱氨酸转化为蛋氨酸。甜菜碱水平降低可能导致同型半胱氨酸升高以及甲基供体供应不足，进而可能影响DNA甲基化。为了探究甜菜碱水平降低如何影响精神分裂症中常见的脑结构变化，本研究调查了27例慢性精神分裂症患者和49名健康对照个体之间的关系。我们发现，甜菜碱对脑容量的影响具有群体特异性，并且甜菜碱与精神分裂症病理生理学中涉及的显著脑区（包括颞上回）之间存在显著相关性。这些发现表明，甜菜碱水平可能导致精神分裂症患者出现异常的结构变化。
