scholarly journals Common and Unique Genetic Background between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Excessive Body Weight

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1407
Author(s):  
Monika Dmitrzak-Weglarz ◽  
Elzbieta Paszynska ◽  
Karolina Bilska ◽  
Paula Szczesniewska ◽  
Ewa Bryl ◽  
...  

Comorbidity studies show that children with ADHD have a higher risk of being overweight and obese than healthy children. This study aimed to assess the genetic alternations that differ between and are shared by ADHD and excessive body weight (EBW). The sample consisted of 743 Polish children aged between 6 and 17 years. We analyzed a unique set of genes and polymorphisms selected for ADHD and/or obesity based on gene prioritization tools. Polymorphisms in the KCNIP1, SLC1A3, MTHFR, ADRA2A, and SLC6A2 genes proved to be associated with the risk of ADHD in the studied population. The COMT gene polymorphism was one that specifically increased the risk of EBW in the ADHD group. Using the whole-exome sequencing technique, we have shown that the ADHD group contains rare and protein-truncating variants in the FBXL17, DBH, MTHFR, PCDH7, RSPH3, SPTBN1, and TNRC6C genes. In turn, variants in the ADRA2A, DYNC1H1, MAP1A, SEMA6D, and ZNF536 genes were specific for ADHD with EBW. In this way, we confirmed, at the molecular level, the existence of genes specifically predisposing to EBW in ADHD patients, which are associated with the biological pathways involved in the regulation of the reward system, intestinal microbiome, and muscle metabolism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-Hua Li ◽  
Xiao-Jing Yue ◽  
Cheng-Xin Wang ◽  
Jun-Yan Feng ◽  
Bing Wang ◽  
...  

Objective: To measure levels of vitamin A (VA) and vitamin D (VD) and the symptomatic association of their co-deficiencies on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Chinese children (6–9 years).Methods: Eighty-two children (69 boys and 13 girls; mean age = 7.1 ± 0.9 years at the time of the diagnosis) with ADHD were recruited as ADHD group. A total of 106 healthy children were recruited as the healthy control (HC) group. Serum levels of retinol and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) of all children were evaluated using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry. The Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV Rating Scale (SNAP-IV) was employed to assess the clinical symptoms of ADHD.Results: Children suffering from ADHD had significantly reduced serum levels of retinol and 25(OH)D compared with those of HCs, and the prevalence of VA deficiency and VD deficiency were higher in children suffering from ADHD. Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D and retinol were linked closely with the presence or absence of ADHD after adjustment for age, body mass index, season of blood sampling, and sun exposure. Serum concentrations of 25(OH)D and retinol showed a negative correlation with the total scores of SNAP-IV. Children with ADHD as well as VA and VD co-deficiency had increased SNAP-IV total scores and ADHD inattention subscale scores.Conclusion: VA deficiency and VD deficiency in children with ADHD were increased in comparison with that in HCs. VA and VD co-deficiency associated with ADHD symptom severity. Attention should be paid to regular testing of VA levels and VD levels. However, the mechanism of VA and VD in ADHD needs to be further studied. Interventional studies on VA and VD supplementation are recommended to further verify the relationship between VA and VD co-deficiency and ADHD.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 422-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kirov ◽  
H. Uebel ◽  
B. Albrecht ◽  
T. Banaschewski ◽  
A. Rothenberger ◽  
...  

IntroductionWe have previously found an increased rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).ObjectivesTo further investigate sleep characteristics in children with ADHD and their association with cognitive and neurobehavioral functions.AimsWe asked whether and how REM sleep might have been associated with cognitive ability and neurobehavioral functions in children with ADHD compared with healthy children.MethodsTwenty-three children with ADHD and 21 healthy controls underwent a two-night polysomnography and completed a number of standardized tests for cognitive and neurobehavioral functioning.ResultsCompared with controls, ADHD children exhibited a greater amount of REM sleep. In the ADHD group, the increased amount of REM sleep correlated positively with psychopathological scores (inattention) and negatively with performance intelligence quotient (IQ) (Fig. 1).Fig. 1[Kirov et al_Figure 1]In contrast, in the healthy controls, the REM sleep amount correlated positively with performance IQ and negatively with psychopathological scores (inattention) (Fig. 2).Fig. 2[Kirov et al_Figure 2]ConclusionsWe conclude that REM sleep may have a bi-directional role in cognition and neurobehavioral functioning during childhood depending on the presence or absence of psychopathology.


Author(s):  
Ali Ekhlasi ◽  
Ali Motie Nasrabadi ◽  
Mohammad Reza Mohammadi

Objective: This study aimed to investigate differences in brain networks between healthy children and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during an attention test. Method: To fulfill this, we constructed weighted directed graphs based on Electroencephalography (EEG) signals of 61 children with ADHD and 60 healthy children with the same age. Nodes of graphs were 19 EEG electrodes, and the edges were phase transfer entropy (PTE) between each pair of electrodes. PTE is a measure for directed connectivity that determines the effective relationship between signals in linear and nonlinear coupling. Connectivity graphs of each sample were constructed using PTE in the five frequency bands as follows: delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma. To investigate the differences in connectivity strength of each node after the sparsification process with two values (0.5 and 0.25), the permutation statistical test was used with the statistical significance level of p<0.01. Results: The results indicate stronger inter-regional connectivity in the prefrontal brain regions of the control group compared to the ADHD group. However, the strength of inter-regional connectivity in the central regions of the ADHD group was higher. A comparison of the prefrontal regions between the two groups revealed that the areas of the Fp1 electrode (left prefrontal) in healthy individuals play stronger transmission roles. Conclusion: Our research can provide new insights into the strength and direction of connectivity in ADHD and healthy individuals during an attention task.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esraa Yahia Kholif ◽  
Salwa Mohamed Awad ◽  
Nasr Mohamed Attia ◽  
Ziyad Essam Tawhid ◽  
Mahmoud Elwasify

Abstract Background Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychological disorders that affects children, adolescents, and adults. Dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) has been implicated in its pathophysiology. So, this study aimed to compare the salivary cortisol level between ADHD children and healthy children. It also compared the salivary cortisol level of ADHD children before treatment and 1 month after treatment with methylphenidate. Results This study showed that there was a statistically significant decrease in salivary cortisol level of the ADHD group, specifically hyperactive/impulsive subtype compared to the control group. Furthermore, it showed a statistically significant increase of salivary cortisol level after treatment compared to before treatment in the ADHD group. Conclusions HPA axis dysfunction may be related to the pathophysiology of ADHD, specifically hyperactive/impulsive subtype. Methylphenidate positively affects the HPA axis of ADHD children.


Author(s):  
Floriana Costanzo ◽  
Elisa Fucà ◽  
Deny Menghini ◽  
Antonella Rita Circelli ◽  
Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo ◽  
...  

Event-based prospective memory (PM) was investigated in children with Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using a novel experimental procedure to evaluate the role of working memory (WM) load, attentional focus, and reward sensitivity. The study included 24 children with ADHD and 23 typically-developing controls. The experimental paradigm comprised one baseline condition (BC), only including an ongoing task, and four PM conditions, varying for targets: 1 Target (1T), 4 Targets (4T), Unfocal (UN), and Reward (RE). Children with ADHD were slower than controls on all PM tasks and less accurate on both ongoing and PM tasks on the 4T and UN conditions. Within the ADHD group, the accuracy in the RE condition did not differ from BC. A significant relationship between ADHD-related symptoms and reduced accuracy/higher speed in PM conditions (PM and ongoing trials), but not in BC, was detected. Our data provide insight on the adverse role of WM load and attentional focus and the positive influence of reward in the PM performance of children with ADHD. Moreover, the relation between PM and ADHD symptoms paves the road for PM as a promising neuropsychological marker for ADHD diagnosis and intervention.


Author(s):  
Gabriella Casalino ◽  
Giovanna Castellano ◽  
Arianna Consiglio ◽  
Nicoletta Nuzziello ◽  
Gennaro Vessio

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a set of short non-coding RNAs that play significant regulatory roles in cells. The study of miRNA data produced by Next-Generation Sequencing techniques can be of valid help for the analysis of multifactorial diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Although extensive studies have been conducted on young adults affected by MS, very little work has been done to investigate the pathogenic mechanisms in pediatric patients, and none from a machine learning perspective. In this work, we report the experimental results of a classification study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of machine learning methods in automatically distinguishing pediatric MS from healthy children, based on their miRNA expression profiles. Additionally, since Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) shares some cognitive impairments with pediatric MS, we also included patients affected by ADHD in our study. Encouraging results were obtained with an artificial neural network model based on a set of features automatically selected by feature selection algorithms. The results obtained show that models developed on automatically selected features overcome models based on a set of features selected by human experts. Developing an automatic predictive model can support clinicians in early MS diagnosis and provide new insights that can help find novel molecular pathways involved in MS disease.


Author(s):  
Aysel Vehapoglu ◽  
Zeynep Ebru Cakın ◽  
Feyza Ustabas Kahraman ◽  
Mustafa Atilla Nursoy ◽  
Ali Toprak

Abstract Objectives It is unclear whether body weight status (underweight/normal weight/overweight/obese) is associated with allergic disease. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between body weight status (body mass index; BMI) and atopic allergic disease in prepubertal children, and to compare children with atopic allergic diseases with non atopic healthy children. Methods A prospective cross sectional study of 707 prepubertal children aged 3–10 years was performed; the participants were 278 atopic children with physician-diagnosed allergic disease (allergic rhinitis and asthma) (serum total IgE level >100 kU/l and eosinophilia >4%, or positivity to at least one allergen in skin test) and 429 non atopic healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Data were collected between December 2019 and November 2020 at the Pediatric General and Pediatric Allergy Outpatient Clinics of Bezmialem Vakıf University Hospital. Results Underweight was observed in 11.6% of all participants (10.8% of atopic children, 12.2% of healthy controls), and obesity in 14.9% of all participants (18.0% of atopic children, 12.8% of controls). Obese (OR 1.71; 95% CI: 1.08–2.71, p=0.021), and overweight status (OR 1.62; 95% CI: 1.06–2.50, p=0.026) were associated with an increased risk of atopic allergic disease compared to normal weight in pre-pubertal children. This association did not differ by gender. There was no relationship between underweight status and atopic allergic disease (OR 1.03; 95% CI: 0.63–1.68, p=0.894). Conclusions Overweight and obesity were associated with an increased risk of atopic allergic disease compared to normal weight among middle-income and high-income pre pubertal children living in Istanbul.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Szabina Velő ◽  
Ágnes Keresztény ◽  
Gyöngyvér Ferenczi-Dallos ◽  
Luca Pump ◽  
Katalin Móra ◽  
...  

Several recent studies confirmed that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has a negative influence on peer relationship and quality of life in children. The aim of the current study is to investigate the association between prosocial behaviour, peer relationships and quality of life in treatment naïve ADHD samples. The samples included 79 children with ADHD (64 boys and 15 girls, mean age = 10.24 years, SD = 2.51) and 54 healthy control children (30 boys and 23 girls, mean age = 9.66 years, SD = 1.73). Measurements included: The “Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” and the “Inventar zur Erfassung der Lebensqualität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen”. The ADHD group showed significantly lower levels of prosocial behaviour and more problems with peer relationships than the control group. Prosocial behaviour has a weak positive correlation with the rating of the child’s quality of life by the parents, both in the ADHD group and in the control group. The rating of quality of life and peer relationship problems by the parents also showed a significant negative moderate association in both groups. The rating of quality of life by the child showed a significant negative weak relationship with peer relationships in the ADHD group, but no significant relationship was found in the control group. Children with ADHD and comorbid externalizing disorders showed more problems in peer relationships than ADHD without comorbid externalizing disorders. Based on these results, we conclude that therapy for ADHD focused on improvement of prosocial behaviour and peer relationships as well as comorbid externalizing disorders could have a favourable effect on the quality of life of these children.


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