A Clinical Study of Urine Amino Acids in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Overview

Journal Life (Basel)

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 May 25

PMID 38792651

Authors

Catalina Mihaela Anastasescu

Veronica Gheorman

Florica Popescu

Mioara Desdemona Stepan

Eugen Cristi Stoicanescu

Victor Gheorman

Ion Udristoiu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Methods: We designed a case-control study that consisted of 75 boys and girls, aged between 2 and 12 years. For amino acid profile, we used urine samples that were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Results: Descriptive analysis showed higher values for glutamine, hydroxyproline, tyrosine, aspartic acid, and tryptophan and lower values for serine in the autism group than in the control group. Also, we found that boys with autism had higher values than the boys in the control group for serine, threonine, and aspartic acid. For girls from both groups, we did not find statistically significant values. In terms of age groups, we found significantly higher values for histidine, threonine, valine, methionine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, alpha amino-adipic acid, sarcosine, alanine, and beta-alanine and significantly lower values for proline for both the autism and control groups under 5 years.

Conclusions: The findings of this study support the assumption that amino acids may have a role in the expression of ASD.

Citing Articles

Exploring the Association Between Human Blood Metabolites and Autism Spectrum Disorder Risk: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study.

Li W, Ma S, Tian Y Health Sci Rep. 2025; 8(3):e70528.

PMID: 40041792 PMC: 11875788. DOI: 10.1002/hsr2.70528.

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