The Alteration of Irisin—Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Axis Parallels Severity of Distress Disorder in Bronchial Asthma Patients

Abstract

Distress disorder (a collective term for generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder) is a well-known co-morbidity of bronchial asthma. The irisin—brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) axis is a pathway that influences several neurobehavioral mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of distress disorder. Thus, the aim of the present study was to quantify the serum irisin and BDNF concentrations in order to investigate the possible link between the irisin/BDNF axis and distress disorder in an asthma patient cohort. Data of 167 therapy-controlled asthma patients were analyzed. Demographic, anthropometric, and anamnestic data were collected, routine laboratory parameters supplemented with serum irisin and BDNF levels were determined, pulmonary function test was performed using whole-body plethysmography, and quality of life was quantified by means of the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). Correlation analysis as well as simple and multiple linear regression were used to assess the relationship between the irisin level and the Impacts score of SGRQ, which latter is indicative of the presence and severity of distress disorder. We have found a significant, positive linear relationship between the Impacts score and the reciprocal of irisin level. This association was stronger in patients whose BDNF level was higher, and it was weaker (and statistically non-significant) in patients whose BDNF level was lower. Our results indicate that higher serum irisin level together with higher serum BDNF level are associated with milder (or no) distress disorder. This finding suggests that alteration of the irisin/BDNF axis influences the presence and severity of distress disorder in asthma patients.

Plasma Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Concentration and BDNF/TrkB Gene Polymorphisms in Croatian Adults with Asthma

“…Moreover, the exclusion criteria of this study were quite restrictive and future studies should be conducted on much larger samples of asthma patients, taking into account the effects of comorbidities and medications, to reflect the real-world data. As the role of depression in asthma is an ongoing area of research [ 84 , 85 , 86 ], it would be important to also incorporate these patients in future studies. On the other hand, the present study included an adequate number of participants in order to have statistical power and to observe statistically significant associations.…”

Altered irisin/BDNF axis parallels excessive daytime sleepiness in obstructive sleep apnea patients

“…Studies including healthy individuals and other patient populations reported serum BDNF levels spanning over four orders of magnitude, ranging from 0.005 ng/ml to 280 ng/ml, [71–74] using different ELISA kits. Our group has formerly reported serum BDNF levels of 345.6 ng/mL (IQR 294.20–387.90 ng/mL) and 314.46 ± 118.68 ng/mL in cohorts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients [75] and bronchial asthma [76], respectively. To the best of our knowledge there are no reports concerning the serum level of irisin in OSHAS patients.…”

The Role of PGC-1α/UCP2 Signaling in the Beneficial Effects of Physical Exercise on the Brain

“…Exercise is an antidepressant (Blumenthal et al, 1999; Cunha et al, 2013), and irisin has been linked to the antidepressant effects of exercise. Reduced irisin levels are associated with mood impairment and reduced BDNF levels in humans (Papp et al, 2017; Szilasi et al, 2017), and increased circulating concentrations of irisin have been shown to have antidepressant effects in mice (Siteneski et al, 2018). A possible mechanism for the antidepressant effect is the activation of the PGC-1α/BDNF pathway by irisin after exercise (Wrann et al, 2013).…”