ApoE elevation is associated with the persistence of psychotic experiences from age 12 to age 18: Evidence from the ALSPAC birth cohort

Abstract

Apolipoproteins, which play important roles in lipid metabolism, innate immunity and synaptic signalling, have been implicated in first episode psychosis and schizophrenia. This is the first study to investigate plasma apolipoprotein expression in children with psychotic experiences that persist into adulthood. Here, using semi-targeted proteomic analysis we compared plasma apolipoprotein expression levels in age 11 subjects who reported psychotic experiences at both age 11 and age 18 (n=38) with age-matched controls who only experienced psychotic experiences (PEs) at age 11 (n=38). Participants were recruited from the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort who participated in psychiatric assessment interviews at ages 12 and 18. We identified apoE, a arker of Alzhei er s Disease, to be significantly up regulated (p<0.003) in those with persistent psychotic experiences. We confirmed this finding in these samples using ELISA. Our findings indicate elevated plasma apoE in age 11 children who experience PEs is associated with persistence psychotic experiences.

An exploratory study of metabolomics in endogenous and cannabis-use-associated psychotic-like experiences in adolescence

“…Similarly, phospho-and sphingolipids have been found to be altered in rst-episode psychosis (FEP) when compared to healthy controls (Leppik et al, 2020). Apolipoprotein E, an important protein in cholesterol metabolism, has been present at greater levels in adolescents undergoing persistent psychotic experiences compared to those whose experiences did not persist (Sabherwal et al, 2019). Findings in individuals with an interview-assessed clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR) include altered catecholamine dopamine and noradrenaline metabolite alterations in saliva samples (Cui et al, 2021).…”

“…Findings in individuals with an interview-assessed clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR) include altered catecholamine dopamine and noradrenaline metabolite alterations in saliva samples (Cui et al, 2021). Additionally, PLEs have been associated with changes in gene expression, observed as altered DNA methylation (Roberts et al, 2019), as well as alterations in the proteome (Föcking et al, 2021;Sabherwal et al, 2019) in children and adolescents when compared to healthy age-matched controls. To our knowledge, no metabolomic research, except for lipidomic studies, has been conducted in relation to PLE.…”