ArticleLupus science & medicine2021
Quinolinic acid, a kynurenine/tryptophan pathway metabolite, associates with impaired cognitive test performance in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Article in Lupus science & medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Kynurenine pathway dysregulation in cognitive impairment and dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.GeroScience · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism in rheumatic diseases.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- Tryptophan Metabolism in Digestive and Extra-Digestive Diseases: Mechanisms, Clinical Implications, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Nutrients · 2026Review
- From Xenobiotic Exposure to Neuroinflammation: Mechanisms Linking Lipopolysaccharide Signaling to Depressive-like Behavior.Journal of xenobiotics · 2026Review
- Kynurenine Pathway, Nrf2 and NF-κB Cross-Regulation in the CNS: An Overview.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- IFNγ-associated immune-metabolic remodeling is linked to serotonin-kynurenine imbalance and cortical vulnerability in lupus-prone mice.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Harnessing Dietary Tryptophan: Bridging the Gap Between Neurobiology and Psychiatry in Depression Management.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The kynurenine pathway in depression and schizophrenia: convergent signals, divergent states, and clinical signatures.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota and metabolism in systemic lupus erythematosus: from dysbiosis to targeted interventions.European journal of medical research · 2025Review
- Diffuse neuropsychiatric lupus: Clinical evidence, immune-mediated mechanisms, and therapeutic insights.Seminars in immunology · 2025Review
- The Kynurenine Pathway in Gut Permeability and Inflammation.Inflammation · 2025Review
- Gut-vitamin D interplay: key to mitigating immunosenescence and promoting healthy ageing.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2025Review
- Quinoline Quest: Kynurenic Acid Strategies for Next-Generation Therapeutics via Rational Drug Design.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Neuropsychiatric manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjogren's disease.Autoimmunity reviews · 2025Review
- Mechanistic insights regarding neuropsychiatric and neuropathologic impacts of air pollution.Critical reviews in toxicology · 2024Review
- Gut-Brain Axis and Neuroinflammation: The Role of Gut Permeability and the Kynurenine Pathway in Neurological Disorders.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- The immunology of systemic lupus erythematosus.Nature immunology · 2024Review
- Review
- Bacterial Metabolites: A Link between Gut Microbiota and Dermatological Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Social determinants of depression in systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic scoping review.Lupus · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesInterferon-alpha, an important contributor to SLE pathogenesis, induces the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in the kynurenine/tryptophan (KYN/TRP) pathway. This leads to a potentially neurotoxic imbalance in the KYN/TRP pathway metabolites, quinolinic acid (QA), an N-methyl D-aspartate glutamatergic receptor (NMDAR) agonist, and kynurenic acid (KA), an NMDAR antagonist. We determined whether QA/KA ratios associate with cognitive dysfunction (CD) and depression in SLE.
methodsThis cross-sectional study included 74 subjects with SLE and 74 healthy control (HC) subjects; all without history of neuropsychiatric disorders. Serum metabolite levels (KYN, TRP, QA, KA) were measured concurrently with assessments of cognition (Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM), 2×2 array), mood and pain, and compared between SLE and HC. Multivariable modelling in SLE was used to evaluate associations of metabolites with cognitive performance and depression.
resultsSerum KYN/TRP and QA/KA ratios were elevated in SLE versus HC (p<0.0001). SLE performed worse than HC on four of five ANAM tests (all p≤0.02) and the 2×2 array (p<0.01), and had higher depression scores (p<0.01). In SLE, elevated QA/KA ratios correlated with poor performance on Match to Sample (MTS), a working memory and visuospatial processing task (p<0.05). Subjects with SLE with elevated QA/KA ratios also had slightly higher odds of depression, but this did not reach significance (p=0.09). Multivariable modelling in SLE confirmed an association between QA/KA ratios and poor MTS performance when considering potentially confounding factors (p<0.05).
conclusionsElevated serum KYN/TRP and QA/KA ratios confirm KYN/TRP pathway activation in SLE. The novel association between increased QA/KA ratios and poor cognitive performance supports further study of this pathway as a potential biomarker or therapeutic target for SLE-mediated CD.
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Registered trials
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