ArticleTranslational psychiatry2017
Serum kynurenic acid is reduced in affective psychosis.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- The tryptophan catabolite or kynurenine pathway in schizophrenia: meta-analysis reveals dissociations between central, serum, and plasma compartments.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Searching for biomarkers in schizophrenia and psychosis: Case-control study using capillary electrophoresis and liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry and systematic review for biofluid metabolites.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2022Pooled it
- The kynurenine pathway in major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of 101 studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The kynurenine pathway in bipolar disorder: a meta-analysis on the peripheral blood levels of tryptophan and related metabolites.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Tryptophan Catabolites in Bipolar Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of inflammation on the kynurenine pathway in schizophrenia - a systematic review.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2020Pooled it
- Multivariate analysis of genome-wide data to identify potential pleiotropic genes for five major psychiatric disorders using MetaCCA.Journal of affective disorders · 2019Pooled it
- Acute administration of ibuprofen increases serum concentration of the neuroprotective kynurenine pathway metabolite, kynurenic acid: a pilot randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- The kynurenine pathway in depression and schizophrenia: convergent signals, divergent states, and clinical signatures.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- The tryptophan-kynurenine pathway in cardiovascular diseases: mechanistic insights and therapeutic opportunities.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Effects of cerebrolysin on behavioral changes and the tryptophan-kynurenine pathway in the prefrontal cortex of male mice in the ketamine model of schizophrenia.Molecular biology reports · 2025Article
- Inhibition of oxidative stress, neuroinflammatory cytokines, and protein expressions contributes to the antipsychotic effects of geraniol in mice with ketamine-induced schizophrenia.Journal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology · 2025Article
- Plasma metabolic profiles in alcohol use disorder: diagnostic role of arginine and emotional implications of N6-acetyl-lysine and succinic acid.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Hepatic kynurenic acid mediates phosphorylation of Nogo-A in the medial prefrontal cortex to regulate chronic stress-induced anxiety-like behaviors in mice.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2024Article
- Psychotomimetic compensation versus sensitization.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2024Review
- Elevated serum kynurenic acid in individuals with first-episode psychosis and insufficient response to antipsychotics.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- The improvement effect of exercise on rats with chronic stress-induced depression-like behavior: a discussion based on the kynurenine pathway.The Journal of international medical research · 2024Article
- Review
- Serum neuroactive metabolites of the tryptophan pathway in patients with acute phase of affective disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
A subgroup of individuals with mood and psychotic disorders shows evidence of inflammation that leads to activation of the kynurenine pathway and the increased production of neuroactive kynurenine metabolites. Depression is hypothesized to be causally associated with an imbalance in the kynurenine pathway, with an increased metabolism down the 3-hydroxykynurenine (3HK) branch of the pathway leading to increased levels of the neurotoxic metabolite, quinolinic acid (QA), which is a putative N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor agonist. In contrast, schizophrenia and psychosis are hypothesized to arise from increased metabolism of the NMDA receptor antagonist, kynurenic acid (KynA), leading to hypofunction of GABAergic interneurons, the disinhibition of pyramidal neurons and striatal hyperdopaminergia. Here we present results that challenge the model of excess KynA production in affective psychosis. After rigorous control of potential confounders and multiple testing we find significant reductions in serum KynA and/or KynA/QA in acutely ill inpatients with major depressive disorder (N=35), bipolar disorder (N=53) and schizoaffective disorder (N=40) versus healthy controls (N=92). No significant difference was found between acutely ill inpatients with schizophrenia (n=21) and healthy controls. Further, a post hoc comparison of patients divided into the categories of non-psychotic affective disorder, affective psychosis and psychotic disorder (non-affective) showed that the greatest decrease in KynA was in the affective psychosis group relative to the other diagnostic groups. Our results are consistent with reports of elevations in proinflammatory cytokines in psychosis, and preclinical work showing that inflammation upregulates the enzyme, kynurenine mono-oxygenase (KMO), which converts kynurenine into 3-hydroxykynurenine and quinolinic acid.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.