ABSTRACT
Background: Owing to the lack of valid biomarkers, the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis relies solely on the behavioral phenotypes of children. Several researchers have suggested an association between ASD and inflammation; however, the complex relationship between the two is unelucidated to date. Therefore, the current study aims to comprehensively identify novel circulating ASD inflammatory biomarkers. Methods: Olink proteomics was applied to compare the plasma inflammation-related protein changes in a group of the healthy children (HC, n = 33) and another with ASD (n = 31). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were calculated. The functional analysis of the DEPs was performed using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia Genes and Genomes. Pearson correlation tests were used employed to analyze the correlation between the DEPs and clinical features. Results: A total of 13 DEPs were significantly up-regulated in the ASD group compared with the HC group. The four proteins, namely, STAMBP, ST1A1, SIRT2, and MMP-10 demonstrated good diagnostic accuracy with the corresponding AUCs (95% confidence interval, CI) of 0.7218 (0.5946-0.8489), 0.7107 (0.5827-0.8387), 0.7016 (0.5713-0.8319), and 0.7006 (0.568-0.8332). Each panel of STAMBP and any other differential protein demonstrated a better classification performance [AUC values from 0.7147 (0.5858-0.8436, STAMBP/AXIN1) to 0.7681 (0.6496-0.8867, STAMBP/MMP-10)]. These DEP profiles were enriched in immune and inflammatory response pathways, including TNF and NOD-like receptor signaling pathways. The interaction between STAMBP and SIRT2 (R = 0.97, p = 8.52 × 10-39) was found to be the most significant. In addition, several DEPs related to clinical features in patients with ASD, particularly AXIN1 (R = 0.36, p = 0.006), SIRT2 (R = 0.34, p = 0.010) and STAMBP (R = 0.34, p = 0.010), were positively correlated with age and parity, indicating that older age and higher parity may be the inflammation-related clinical factors in ASD. Conclusion: Inflammation plays a crucial role in ASD, and the up-regulated inflammatory proteins may serve as potential early diagnostic biomarkers for ASD.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To search for the best therapy for simple obesity. METHODS: Eighty cases were randomly divided into 3 groups. The body acupuncture group were treated based on the syndrome of heat of stomach and intestine, syndrome of spleen deficiency and stagnation of dampness, and syndrome of spleen and kidney yang-deficiency; the auricular and body acupuncture group were treated by the syndrome treatment of body acupuncture combined with auricular point sticking; the observation group were treated by the combined auricular and body acupuncture treatment plus moving cupping on back-shu points. Body weight, BMI, body fatd, blood lipids and clinically main symptoms before and after treatment were investigated. RESULTS: The total effective rate was 69.6% in the body acupuncture group, 76.0%. in the auricular and body acupuncture group, and 90.6% treated in the observation group, with significant differences in the therapeutic effect, clinically main symptoms, external indexes of obesity and kidney ang-blood lipid metabolism between the observation group and the body acupuncture group. The various indexes in the auricular and body acupuncture group were superior to those iwere tthe body acupuncture group, with no significant differences in most indexes. CONCLUSION: Auricular and body acupuncture combined with moving cupping at back-shu points has obvious therapeutic effect on simple obesity and this is a better therapy for simple obesity.
