26
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Decreased plasma neuroactive amino acids and increased nitric oxide levels in melancholic major depressive disorder

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Amino acid neurotransmitters and nitric oxide (NO) are involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). Here we want to establish whether changes in their plasma levels may serve as biomarker for the melancholic subtype of this disorder.

          Methods

          Plasma levels of glutamic acid (Glu), aspartic acid (Asp), glycine (Gly), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and NO were determined in 27 medicine-naïve melancholic MDD patients and 30 matched controls. Seven of the MDD patients participated also in a follow-up study after 2 months’ antidepressant treatment. The relationship between plasma and cerebral-spinal fluid (CSF) levels of these compounds was analyzed in an additional group of 10 non-depressed subjects.

          Results

          The plasma levels of Asp, Gly and GABA were significantly lower whereas the NO levels were significantly higher in melancholic MDD patients, also after 2 months of fluoxetine treatment. In the additional 10 non-depressed subjects, no significant correlation was observed between plasma and CSF levels of these compounds.

          Conclusion

          These data give the first indication that decreased plasma levels of Asp, Gly and GABA and increased NO levels may serve as a clinical trait-marker for melancholic MDD. The specificity and selectivity of this putative trait-marker has to be investigated in follow-up studies.

          Related collections

          Most cited references26

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Role of nitric oxide in inflammatory diseases.

          Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule that plays a key role in the pathogenesis of inflammation. It gives an anti-inflammatory effect under normal physiological conditions. On the other hand, NO is considered as a pro-inflammatory mediator that induces inflammation due to over production in abnormal situations. NO is synthesized and released into the endothelial cells by the help of NOSs that convert arginine into citrulline producing NO in the process. Oxygen and NADPH are necessary co-factors in such conversion. NO is believed to induce vasodilatation in cardiovascular system and furthermore, it involves in immune responses by cytokine-activated macrophages, which release NO in high concentrations. In addition, NO is a potent neurotransmitter at the neuron synapses and contributes to the regulation of apoptosis. NO is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders of the joint, gut and lungs. Therefore, NO inhibitors represent important therapeutic advance in the management of inflammatory diseases. Selective NO biosynthesis inhibitors and synthetic arginine analogues are proved to be used for the treatment of NO-induced inflammation. Finally, the undesired effects of NO are due to its impaired production, including in short: vasoconstriction, inflammation and tissue damage.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Nitric oxide synthases: properties and catalytic mechanism.

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Correlation between plasma levels of glutamate, alanine and serine with severity of depression.

              The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of using plasma levels of amino acids as an indicator of the severity of depression. The samples were collected from 23 depressed patients receiving antidepressant medication, and were compared to 31 healthy subjects. The plasma levels of amino acids were determined using HPLC with fluorometric detection. The severity of depression was evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) scores. Plasma levels of glutamate, glutamine, glycine and taurine were significantly increased in the depressed patients compared to the controls. Statistical analysis indicated a positive correlation between glutamate and alanine levels and HAM-D scores and a negative correlation of L-serine with HAM-D scores. The results indicate that plasma level of glutamate, alanine and L-serine could reflect the severity of depression rather than glutamine, glycine and taurine.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                BMC Psychiatry
                BMC Psychiatry
                BMC Psychiatry
                BioMed Central
                1471-244X
                2014
                27 April 2014
                : 14
                : 123
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Psychiatry, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Medical School of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, P. R. China
                [2 ]Department of Neurobiology; Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Ministry of Health of China; Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, P. R. China
                Article
                1471-244X-14-123
                10.1186/1471-244X-14-123
                4036745
                24767108
                37a38940-326c-443d-a164-0f4fbd3ba06e
                Copyright © 2014 Lu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 22 December 2013
                : 22 April 2014
                Categories
                Research Article

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                major depressive disorder,glutamic acid,aspartic acid,glycine,gamma - aminobutyric acid,nitric oxide

                Comments

                Comment on this article