Diagnostic Performance of Erythropoietin and Erythropoietin Receptors Levels in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Objective: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a heterogeneous, highly heritable, a common childhood neurobehavioural disorder resulting from complex gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. The erythropoietin (Epo)/erythropoietin receptors (EpoR) system turned out to have additional important functions in nonhematopoietic tissue. In this study, we aimed to investigate the levels of Epo and and EpoR, and also their diagnostic values in children with ADHD. Methods: A total of 70 children were included in the study, 35 drug-naive patients with ADHD (age: 6−12 years; male/female: 20/15) and 35 healthy controls (age: 6−12 years; male/female: 22/13). Serum Epo and EpoR levels was determined using a commercial sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Results: The results indicated that the levels of Epo decreased in patients with ADHD compared to control (p ＜ 0.05). On the other hand, EpoR levels increased in these patients (p ＜ 0.05). Furthermore, the ratio of Epo/EpoR was significantly lower in ADHD patients than controls (p ＜ 0.05). Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis showed high diagnostic performance for Epo and EpoR, areas under curve were 0.980 and 1.000, respectively. Conclusion: This is the first report to investigate the association between serum Epo and EpoR levels in ADHD patients. Our results indicated that Epo may play a role in the etiology of ADHD, and Epo therapy may be beneficial in these disorders if given in addition to the routine treatment of children with ADHD. Furthermore, our results reveal possible diagnostic value of Epo and EpoR.

Analysis of Serum VEGF, IGF-1, and HIF-1α Levels in ADHD

“…It also regulates genes associated with angiogenesis, erythropoiesis, iron metabolism, glucose metabolism, cell proliferation, cell survival, and apoptosis, in addition to its contribution to VEGF effects (Semenza, 1998). It is further evidence that HIF-1a contributes to the pathogenesis of ADHD that these processes differ between persons with ADHD and healthy people (Gungor et al, 2021;Scassellati et al, 2020) . Although it has been shown that the development of ADHD may be linked to conditions such as hypoxia and ischemia, which are peripheral manifestations of HIF-1a, to our knowledge there is no study explicitly examining HIF-1a levels in ADHD patients (Miguel et al, 2015;Ohshima et al, 2016).…”

Erythropoietin and Erythropoietin Receptor Levels and Their Diagnostic Values in Drug-naïve Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

“…Recently, intensive research efforts have focused on GAD, applying neuroimaging, genetic, and blood-based approaches toward discovery of pathogenetic and treatment-related biomarkers [ 1 ]. Currently studies on biological markers in the human blood such as G protein-coupled estrogen receptor-1, oxidative stress, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and cortisol performed to determine peripheral markers [ 2 - 5 ]. Plasma appears to be a rational source for proteomic and metabolomic measurements because it is easily accessible and because several molecules from the brain are transported across the blood-brain barrier and reach the circulation.…”