Maternal Metabolites Indicative of Mental Health Status during Pregnancy

Approximately 25% of individuals report poor mental health during their pregnancy or postpartum period, which may impact fetal neurodevelopment, birth outcomes, and maternal behaviors. In the present study, maternal serum samples were collected from pregnancies at 28-32 weeks gestation from the All Our Families (Alberta, Canada) cohort and assessed using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-NMR) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Individuals with poor mental health at 34-36 weeks gestation were age-matched with mentally healthy pregnant controls. Metabolites were examined against validated self-reported mental health questionnaires for associations with depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale) and anxiety symptoms (Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). ¹H-NMR metabolites were identified for depression (alanine, leucine, valine, methionine, phenylalanine, glucose, lactate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, and pyruvate) and anxiety (3-hydroxybutyrate). For ICP-MS, antimony and zinc were significant for depression and anxiety, respectively. Upon false discovery rate (FDR) correction at 10%, five ¹H-NMR metabolites (alanine, leucine, lactate, glucose, and phenylalanine) for depression remained significantly increased. Although results warrant further validation, the identified metabolites may serve as a predictive tool for assessing mental health during pregnancy as earlier identification has the potential to aid intervention and management of poor mental health symptomology, thus avoiding harmful consequences to both mother and offspring.