Biomarkers for Assessing Diet-Related Neurocognitive Deficits in Children—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Neurocognitive deficits in children could be irreversible and detrimental to the overall wellbeing of children. Typically, children with this illness live lives below their mental and intellectual potential. The aim of this paper was to review primary evidence on the association between inflammatory biomarkers on neurocognition in children. Electronic databases such as Scopus, Cochrane Library, and PubMed were systematically searched to include all published data from 2000 to October 2023. The keywords included serum biomarker, cognition, executive function, intellectual ability, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurocognitive deficits, tau proteins, and children. A total of 8512 journal publications were obtained, but after the removal of duplicates, commentaries, and review papers, 9 papers were accepted for review. C-reactive protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), fibrinogen, plasma leptin, soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (sTNFR1), and copper were associated with neurocognition in the subjects. This review revealed that there is no research published in sub-Saharan Africa and most of the sample sizes in the studies were small.