Urinary 3-(3-Hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic Acid, 3-Hydroxyphenylacetic Acid, and 3-Hydroxyhippuric Acid Are Elevated in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of mental illnesses highly correlated with gut microbiota. Recent studies have shown that some abnormal aromatic metabolites in autism patients are presumably derived from overgrown Clostridium species in gut, which may be used for diagnostic purposes. In this paper, a GC/MS based metabolomic approach was utilized to seek similar biomarkers by analyzing the urinary information in 62 ASDs patients compared with 62 non-ASDs controls in China, aged 1.5-7. Three compounds identified as 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic acid (HPHPA), 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (3HPA), and 3-hydroxyhippuric acid (3HHA) were found in higher concentrations in autistic children than in the controls (p < 0.001). After oral vancomycin treatment, urinary excretion of HPHPA (p < 0.001), 3HPA (p < 0.005), and 3HHA (p < 0.001) decreased markedly, which indicated that these compounds may also be from gut Clostridium species. The sensitivity and specificity of HPHPA, 3HPA, and 3HHA were evaluated by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The specificity of each compound for ASDs was very high (>96%). After two-regression analysis, the optimal area under the curve (AUC, 0.962), sensitivity (90.3%), and specificity (98.4%) were obtained by ROC curve of Prediction probability based on the three metabolites. These findings demonstrate that the measurements of the three compounds are strong predictors of ASDs and support the potential clinical utility for identifying a subgroup of ASDs subjects.

• Authors: Xiyue Xiong, Dan Liu, Yichao Wang, Ting Zeng, Ying Peng
• Journal: BioMed research international (Biomed Res Int) Vol. 2016 Pg. 9485412 ( 2016) ISSN: 2314-6141 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 27123458 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers
• Hippurates
• Phenylacetates
• Phenylpropionates
• 3-hydroxyhippuric acid
• 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropanoic acid
• 3-hydroxybenzeneacetic acid

Topics

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (diagnosis, epidemiology, urine)
• Biomarkers (urine)
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• China (epidemiology)
• Female
• Hippurates (urine)
• Humans
• Infant
• Male
• Phenylacetates (urine)
• Phenylpropionates (urine)
• Prevalence
• Reproducibility of Results
• Risk Factors
• Sensitivity and Specificity