title: Plasma amino acid profiling in major depressive disorder treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Amino acids are important body metabolites and seem to be helpful for understanding pathogenesis and predicting therapeutic response in major depressive disorder (MDD). We performed amino acid profiling to discover potential biomarkers in major depressive patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Amino acid profiling using aTRAQ™ kits for Amino Acid Analysis in Physiological Fluids on a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system was performed on 158 specimens at baseline and at 6 weeks after the initiation of SSRI treatment for 68 patients with MDD and from 22 healthy controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Baseline alpha-aminobutyric acid (ABA) discriminated the patients according to the therapeutic response. Plasma glutamic acid concentration and glutamine/glutamic acid ratio were different between before and after SSRI treatment only in the response group. Comparing patients with MDD with healthy controls, alterations of ten amino acids, including alanine, beta-alanine, beta-aminoisobutyric acid, cystathionine, ethanolamine, glutamic acid, homocystine, methionine, O-phospho-L-serine, and sarcosine, were observed in MDD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Metabolism of amino acids, including ABA and glutamic acid, has the potential to contribute to understandings of pathogenesis and predictions of therapeutic response in MDD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Changwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Hye-In
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Mi-Ryung
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Jeong-Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shinn-Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Min-Ji
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seon-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Woo-Jae
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Myung
authors.forename: Doh-Kwan
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soo-Youn
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000097:blood*; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
keywords: Alpha-aminobutyric acid; Ethanolamine; Glutamic acid; Metabolomics; Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor