Brain metabolite levels in recently sober individuals with alcohol use disorder: Relation to drinking variables and relapse.
- Authors
- Zahr, Natalie M; Carr, Rebecca A; Rohlfing, Torsten; Mayer, Dirk; Sullivan, Edith V; Colrain, Ian M; Pfefferbaum, Adolf
- Year
- 2016
- Journal
- Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
- PMID
- 27035062
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.01.015
- PMCID
- PMC5426815
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies in alcohol use disorder (AUD) typically report lower levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and choline-containing compounds (Cho) in several brain regions. Metabolite levels, however, are labile and can be affected by several competing factors, some related to drinking variables.. This in vivo MRS study included 20 recently sober (19.6±12.6 days) individuals with AUD and 15 controls. MRS was performed in single voxels placed in frontal white matter and thalamic regions using Constant-Time Point Resolved Spectroscopy (CT-PRESS) for absolute quantification of NAA, Cho, total creatine (tCr), and glutamate (Glu). A trend toward a thalamic NAA deficit in the total AUD group compared with controls was attributable to the subgroup of alcoholics who relapsed 3 or so months after scanning. In the total AUD group, frontal and thalamic NAA and Cho levels were lower with more recent drinking; frontal and thalamic Cho levels were also lower in AUD individuals with past stimulant abuse. Thalamic Cho levels were higher in binge-drinking AUD individuals and in those with longer length of alcohol dependence. MRS-visible metabolite peaks appear to be modulated by variables related to drinking behaviors, suggesting a sensitivity of MRS in tracking and predicting the dynamic course of alcoholism.
Example of voxel placement in the frontal white matter (a) and thalamus (b) and raw spectra on a 34 year-old AUD-A woman. The same spectra with Gaussian fits superimposed on the frontal (c) and thalamus (d) regions.
LLM interpretation
This figure consists of four panels showing magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data from a 34-year-old woman with AUD-A. Panels (a) and (b) display raw spectra with corresponding brain MRI insets indicating voxel placement in the frontal white matter and thalamus, respectively. Panels (c) and (d) show the same spectra with superimposed Gaussian fits for the metabolites Choline (Cho), Creatine (Cr), Glutamate (Glu), and N-acetylaspartate (NAA).
Box plots of metabolite levels in frontal white matter and thalamus in the 4-groups (red=Con (controls), green=AUD-A, blue=AUD-R, black=AUD-lost. NAA: N-acetylaspartate, tCr: total creatine, Cho: choline-containing compounds, Glu: glutamate. * p<0.05 with family-wiseBonferroni correction.
LLM interpretation
This figure consists of a series of box plots comparing levels of four metabolites (NAA, tCr, Cho, and Glu) in the frontal white matter and thalamic tissue across four groups: Con, AUD-A, AUD-R, and AUD-lost. The y-axes represent metabolite concentrations in arbitrary units [a.u.]. In the thalamic tissue, NAA levels are significantly lower in the AUD-R and AUD-lost groups compared to the Con group (* p<0.05). No other statistically significant differences are indicated for the remaining metabolites or the frontal white matter.
a) Example raw thalamus spectra of a 42-year-old control man (red), a 34-year-old AUD man who had remained abstinent at follow-up (green), and a 35-year-old AUD man who had resumed drinking. b) Averaged spectra from the 3 groups (red=Con, green=AUD-A, blue=AUD-R).
LLM interpretation
This figure consists of two line graphs showing thalamus MR spectra. Panel (a) displays raw spectra for three individuals (control in red, abstinent AUD in green, and resuming AUD in blue), while panel (b) shows the averaged spectra for these three groups. Both panels identify peaks for Choline (Cho), Creatine (Cr), Glutamate (Glu), and N-acetylaspartate (NAA), with the control group (red) showing the highest peak intensity for NAA in the raw data.
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| Alcohol Craving and Severity are Associated with Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Choline Levels in Individuals with an Alcohol Use Disorder. | Grodin EN et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Anterior cingulate metabolite levels, memory, and inhibitory control in abstinent men and women with alcohol use disorder. | Oot EN et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Brain metabolite alterations related to alcohol use: a meta-analysis of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies. | Kirkland AE et al. | — | 2022 | → |
| Cortical GABA levels are reduced in young adult binge drinkers: Association with recent alcohol consumption and sex. | Marinkovic K et al. | — | 2022 | → |
| Effects of ibudilast on central and peripheral markers of inflammation in alcohol use disorder: A randomized clinical trial. | Grodin EN et al. | — | 2022 | → |
| Neuroimaging in alcohol use disorder: From mouse to man. | Fritz M et al. | — | 2022 | → |
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| Brain Structure and Function in Recovery. | Nixon SJ et al. | — | 2020 | → |
| Magnetic resonance imaging of neuroinflammation in chronic pain: a role for astrogliosis? | Jung C et al. | — | 2020 | → |
| Alcohol use disorder relapse factors: A systematic review. | Sliedrecht W et al. | — | 2019 | → |
| Basic Human Body Dimensions Relate to Alcohol Dependence and Predict Hospital Readmission. | Lenz B et al. | — | 2019 | → |
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| Cerebral Metabolites on the Descending Limb of Acute Alcohol: A Preliminary 1H MRS Study. | Monnig MA et al. | — | 2019 | → |
| Prehabilitation in Alcohol Dependence as a Treatment Model for Sustainable Outcomes. A Narrative Review of Literature on the Risks Associated With Detoxification, From Animal Models to Human Translational Research. | Kouimtsidis C et al. | — | 2019 | → |
| An endophenotype approach to the genetics of alcohol dependence: a genome wide association study of fast beta EEG in families of African ancestry. | Meyers JL et al. | — | 2017 | → |
| Concomitants of alcoholism: differential effects of thiamine deficiency, liver damage, and food deprivation on the rat brain in vivo. | Zahr NM et al. | — | 2016 | → |