Correlation Study On Serum Metabolomics Of Major Depressive Disorder Patients In Qinghai Area

Objective: To study the related differential metabolic pathways and differential metabolites in the serum of depressed patients in Qinghai area.To preliminarily explore the metabolic differences between patients with depression of different severity in Qinghai area.Methods: 20 newly diagnosed unmedicated depression patients who visited the Neurology Clinic of Qinghai Provincial People’s Hospital from September 2020 to August 2021 were collected,and 10 volunteers of the same age group with physical and mental health were selected as the control group.The basic information such as age,gender,education,and ethnicity of the case control group was collected.Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HAMD-17)was performed by a professional psychiatrist to assess the severity of the case’s condition,and the cases were divided into case group1(HAMD ≤ 24 points,14 cases)and case group 2(HAMD > 24 points,6 cases)according to the severity of the disease.Fasting serum samples were collected from the patients in the control group and metabolomic analysis was performed to find differential metabolic pathways and differential metabolites.Results: A total of 11 serum differential metabolites were found in patients with primary depression compared with healthy people,and the up-regulated metabolites were nervonic acid,androstenol,Lyso PC(18:1(9Z)),and Lyso PC(14:0/0:0);the down-regulated metabolites were 7-Ketocholesterol,taurine,xanthine,arachidonic acid,sphinganine,dehydroepiandrosterone,and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.A total of 8 serum differential metabolites were found in the comparison between case group 1 and case group 2,and the up-regulated metabolites were kynurenic acid,norvaline,indoxyl,3-methylindole,indoxyl sulfate,and dihydrolipoate;the downregulated metabolites were N-methyl-D-aspartic acid and gamma-linolenic acid.The differential metabolic pathways between depression and healthy people were taurine and hypotaurine metabolism,sphingolipid metabolism,nitrogen metabolism,primary bile acid biosynthesis,steroid hormone biosynthesis,and tryptophan metabolism;the differential metabolic pathways between case group 1 and case group 2 were glycerophospholipid metabolism,glycine,serine and threonine metabolism,tryptophan metabolism,ether lipid metabolism,nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism,histidine metabolism,cysteine and methionine metabolism.Conclusions:1.There are differences in the serum expression levels of androstenol,nervonic acid,taurine,xanthine,dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate,sphinganine and other substances between patients with depression and healthy people in Qinghai area, suggesting that lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism may be associated with the pathogenesis of depression in this area.2.Metabolites such as kynurenic acid,indoxyl,indoxyl sulfate,and 3-methylindole are lower in the serum of patients with major depression than in patients with mild to moderate depression and healthy people,suggesting that they may be associated with the severity of illness in patients with unmedicated depression.3.The expression levels of serum sphingosine and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in patients with depression in each group were lower than those in healthy people,it has the potential to be a biological marker of depression.