ArticleJournal of affective disorders2018
A pilot resting-state functional connectivity study of the kynurenine pathway in adolescents with depression and healthy controls.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Abnormal resting-state functional connectivity in anhedonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- BrainFrontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- Balancing act: Neural correlates of affect dysregulation in youth depression and substance use - A systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- The kynurenine pathway in relation to depression and anhedonia symptom severity among women with HIV.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Review
- The correlation of inflammation, tryptophan-kynurenine pathway, and suicide risk in adolescent depression.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Differences Between Adolescent Depression and Healthy Controls in Biomarkers Associated With Immune or Inflammatory Processes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Psychiatry investigation · 2025Article
- Sex- and suicide-specific alterations in the kynurenine pathway in the anterior cingulate cortex in major depression.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- The kynurenine and serotonin pathway, neopterin and biopterin in depressed children and adolescents: an impact of omega-3 fatty acids, and association with markers related to depressive disorder. A randomized, blinded, prospective study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Neuroimaging biomarkers for detecting schizophrenia: A resting-state functional MRI-based radiomics analysis.Heliyon · 2022Article
- The tryptophan catabolite or kynurenine pathway in major depressive and bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Review
- Clenbuterol attenuates immune reaction to lipopolysaccharide and its relationship to anhedonia in adolescents.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- C-Reactive protein and the kynurenic acid to quinolinic acid ratio are independently associated with white matter integrity in major depressive disorder.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- Apathy is not associated with a panel of biomarkers in older adults with HIV disease.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2022Article
- Abnormal regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia patients comorbid with depression.Brain imaging and behavior · 2021Article
- Multimodal Investigations of Reward Circuitry and Anhedonia in Adolescent Depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Review
- Correlates of C-reactive protein with neural reward circuitry in adolescents with psychiatric symptoms.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2020Article
- Letter to the Editor: New onset psychosis and mania following COVID-19 infection.Journal of psychiatric research · 2020Article
- Association of Serum Kynurenine Levels and Neural Networks in Patients with First-Episode, Drug-Naïve Major Depression: A Source-Based Morphometry Study.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2020Article
- Anhedonia as a clinical correlate of inflammation in adolescents across psychiatric conditions.The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe neuroimmunological kynurenine pathway (KP) has been hypothesized to play a role in depressive/anhedonic symptoms and related CNS disturbances. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is the rate limiting enzyme which leads to neurotrophic [kynurenic acid (KA)] and neurotoxic [Quinolinic acid (QUIN)] branches. In this pilot, we sought to examine associations between blood KP neuro-toxic/trophic measures and anhedonia/depression associated networks in youth with major depression (MDD) and healthy controls (HC).
methodsSubjects were 14 psychotropic-medication free adolescents with MDD and 7 HC, ages 12-19 yo. All underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) scans. Voxel-wise maps were generated indicating correlation strengths among 4 bilateral seeds [(dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), perigenual ACC (pgACC), subgenual ACC (sgACC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)] and remaining brain regions. FMRI analyses were family-wise error corrected. KP metabolites were measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
resultsConnectivity between the right dACC and the right precuneus was positively correlated with KA levels. This same cluster demonstrated an inverse correlation with IDO activity. Exploratory analysis at a more liberal clustering threshold showed the KA/QUIN ratio was positively correlated with connectivity between the pgACC and the right medial prefrontal cortex. Lastly, connectivity between the pgACC and the left inferior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with QUIN levels. LIMITATIONS: Findings are preliminary due to the small sample size.
conclusionsThis pilot study is the first report in depressed adolescents demonstrating associations between the KP and anhedonia/depression-associated brain networks. This pilot adds evidence to the putative role of the KP in MDD.
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Registered trials
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