¿Podrían los aminoácidos ser un biomarcador de crisis en pacientes con epilepsia?

Introduction

Different metabolic pathways may be altered after a seizure, including amino acids. Our study aims to analyze serum amino acid concentrations in patients with epilepsy through metabolomic evaluation using magnetic resonance spectroscopy and determine their utility as biomarkers of seizures.

Methods

A cross-sectional study involving patients with epilepsy and a healthy control group. Serum levels of fifteen amino acids were analyzed using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and clinical-demographic variables were collected. Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS21, considering a significant value of p ≤ 0.05.

Results

The study included fourteen patients with epilepsy and thirteen controls. Patients exhibited higher levels of glutamic acid (3.613 AUC vs. 2.861 AUC, p 0.043) and proline (4.851 AUC vs. 3.843 AUC, p 0.038), while phenylalanine (0.706 AUC vs. 0.861 AUC, p 0.016), tryptophan (2.129 AUC vs. 2.512 AUC, p 0.007), and threonine (4.424 AUC vs. 5.313 AUC, p 0.033) showed lower concentrations than the control group. Following seizures, a decrease in threonine (5.006 AUC vs. 4.424 AUC, p 0.007), isoleucine (3.974 AUC vs. 3.240 AUC, p 0.027), valine (2.783 AUC vs. 2.534 AUC, p 0.044), and leucine (1.790 AUC vs. 1.572 AUC, p 0.025) was observed in the serum.

Conclusion

The reduction in threonine, valine, isoleucine, and leucine after a seizure could be considered a biomarker for the disease, although further investigations are required to confirm these findings.