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. 2021 Apr 29:14:665686.
doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2021.665686. eCollection 2021.

Evaluation of Zn, Cu, and Se Levels in the North American Autism Spectrum Disorder Population

Sunil Q Mehta  1   2 , Supriya Behl  3 , Patrick L Day  4 , Adriana M Delgado  3 , Nicholas B Larson  5 , Lindsay R Stromback  3 , Andrea R Huebner  1   2 , Timothy R DeGrado  6 , Jessica M Davis  7 , Paul J Jannetto  4 , Flora Howie  1   2 , Mukesh K Pandey  6
Affiliations

Evaluation of Zn, Cu, and Se Levels in the North American Autism Spectrum Disorder Population

Sunil Q Mehta et al. Front Mol Neurosci. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Metal ion dyshomeostasis and disparate levels of biometals like zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and selenium (Se) have been implicated as a potential causative factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this study, we have enrolled 129 children (aged 2-4 years) in North America, of which 64 children had a diagnosis of ASD and 65 were controls. Hair, nail, and blood samples were collected and quantitatively analyzed for Zn, Cu and Se using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Of the analyzed biometals, serum Se (116.83 ± 14.84 mcg/mL) was found to be significantly lower in male ASD cases compared to male healthy controls (128.21 ± 9.11 mcg/mL; p < 0.005). A similar trend was found for nail Se levels in ASD (1.01 ± 0.15 mcg/mL) versus that of controls (1.11 ± 0.17 mcg/mL) with a p-value of 0.0132 using a stratified Wilcoxon rank sum testing. The level of Se in ASD cohort was co-analyzed for psychometric correlation and found a negative correlation between total ADOS score and serum Se levels. However, we did not observe any significant difference in Zn, Cu, and Zn/Cu ratio in ASD cases versus controls in this cohort of North American children. Further studies are recommended to better understand the biology of the relationship between Se and ASD status.

Keywords: Cu; Se; Zn; autism spectrum disorder; biometals.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
ROC curve of serum Se values for cases vs. controls among males, along with confidence interval regions for sensitivity over a grid of specificities (indicated in shaded blue region). An estimate of the AUC and its 95% confidence interval (in parentheses) is also provided.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Scatterplots of ADOS Results and serum Se levels along with fitted linear trends, stratified by sex.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Scatterplots of BMI and serum Se levels along with fitted linear trends, stratified by sex.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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