Sex-Specific Differences in Amino Acids and Neurotransmitters in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Compared to...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Immunology
• Metabolomics

Background:

• Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated disorder affecting the central nervous system.
• Neuroinflammation in MS disrupts blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barriers, altering metabolite transport.
• Understanding these metabolic alterations is crucial for MS research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in serum and CSF amino acid and neurotransmitter levels in MS patients compared to controls.
• To explore the influence of patient characteristics like sex, age, and disease severity on metabolite levels.
• To assess alterations in CSF-serum metabolite associations in MS.

Main Methods:

• Utilized targeted metabolomics on serum and CSF samples.
• Analyzed data from 73 MS patients and 78 non-neuroinflammatory controls.
• Performed stratified analysis based on sex, age, disease duration, severity, and treatment status.

Main Results:

• No significant overall differences in serum and CSF metabolites between MS patients and controls.
• Male MS patients exhibited significantly reduced CSF metabolites compared to male controls.
• Sex-specific associations were found between amino acids/neurotransmitters and disease duration/disability; female MS patients had increased CSF histidine levels.
• MS patients showed enhanced positive correlations between CSF and serum analyte levels.

Conclusions:

• Targeted metabolomics of CSF and serum is valuable for assessing metabolite alterations in MS.
• Sex is a critical biological factor in MS, influencing metabolite levels and associations.
• Findings suggest sex-specific imbalances in neurotransmitters across disease duration in MS.