Decreased CSF oxytocin relates to measures of social cognitive impairment in Huntington's disease patients

Marie N.N. Hellem*, Rachel Y. Cheong, Simone Tonetto, Tua Vinther-Jensen, Rebecca K. Hendel, Ida U. Larsen, Troels T. Nielsen, Lena E. Hjermind, Asmus Vogel, Esben Budtz-Jørgensen, Åsa Petersén, Jørgen E. Nielsen

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

5 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease with motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Non-motor symptoms like depression and altered social cognition are proposed to be caused by dysfunction of the hypothalamus. We measured the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a cohort of HD gene expansion carriers (HDGECs), compared the levels to healthy HD family controls and correlated oxytocin levels to disease progression and social cognition. Methods: We recruited 113 HDGECs and 33 controls. Psychiatric and cognitive symptoms were evaluated, and social cognition was assessed with the Emotion Hexagon test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes and The Awareness of Social Inference Test. The levels of oxytocin in CSF and blood were analyzed by radioimmunoassay. Results: We found the level of oxytocin in CSF to be significantly lower by 33.5% in HDGECs compared to controls (p = 0.016). When dividing the HDGECs into groups with or without cognitive impairment, we found the oxytocin level to be significantly lower by 30.3% in the HDGECs with cognitive symptoms (p = 0.046). We found a statistically significant correlation between the level of oxytocin and scores on social cognition (Reading the Mind in the Eyes p = 0.0019; Emotion Hexagon test: p = 0.0062; The Awareness of Social Inference Test: p = 0.002). Conclusions: This is the first study to measure oxytocin in the CSF of HDGECs. We find that HDGECs have a significantly lower level of oxytocin compared to controls, and that the level of oxytocin may represent an objective and comparable measure that could be used as a state biomarker for impairment of social cognition. We suggest treatment trials to evaluate a potential effect of oxytocin on social cognition in HD.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftParkinsonism and Related Disorders
Vol/bind99
Sider (fra-til)23-29
Antal sider7
ISSN1353-8020
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
JEN received a grant from The Novo Nordisk Foundation .

Funding Information:
AP received grants from the Swedish research Council (grant number 2018/02559 ), the Swedish Brain Foundation ( FO2016-37869 , FO2018-0080 ), the ALF system at Region Skåne as well as Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation ( #2019.0467 ).

Funding Information:
The research was supported by research grants to RYC from the Anna-Lisa Rosenberg Foundation , Fredrik and Ingrid Thurings Foundation (grant number 2017–00316 ), NEURO Sweden. RYC was supported by Swedish Society for Medical Research ( SSMF ) Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant number P15-0017 ).

Funding Information:
This project was supported by the Danish Huntington's Disease Association Research Foundation, MNNH received grants from The Research Board at Rigshospitalet , the A.P. Møller Foundation and The Søren Segel & Johanne Wiibro Segel's Research Fund.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd

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