Acetylsalicylic acid and its metabolite gentisic acid may act as adjunctive agents in the treatment of psychiatric disorders

The effect of polarity and hydrogen bonding on the electronic and vibrational structure of the salicylate anion in acetonitrile and water: implicit and explicit solvation approaches

This study investigates the fluorescence quenching of the salicylate anion in water compared to acetonitrile (ACN) and the stability of its keto structure in ACN using DFT and TD-DFT methods at the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Computational simulations in implicit and explicit environments of ACN and water reveal the effects of solvent polarity and hydrogen bonding on enol [Od-H⋯Oa] and keto [Od⋯H-Oa] tautomerization, fluorescence quenching, and the spectral profile of the salicylate anion. Implicit solvation models show a barrier height of approximately 1.9 kcal mol-1 in ACN and 3.6 kcal mol-1 in water for enol-keto tautomerization in the ground state, with no barrier in the excited state, leading to an ESIPT reaction in both solvents, but only ground state proton transfer in ACN. Simulated absorption spectra for both enol and keto forms are similar in both solvents, while the emission spectrum is red-shifted in water. Explicit solvation studies indicate greater stabilization of the salicylate anion in water than in ACN, with a blue shift in absorption and emission spectra and varying oscillator strengths. Solvent molecule positioning affects enol-keto stabilization in the ground state, but only the keto structure is stabilized in the excited state. Simulated IR spectra in water show a blue shift in Od-H stretching frequency and increased water molecule vibrational frequencies, suggesting non-radiative excitation energy transfer from salicylate ions to water molecules via n → σ* intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. This mechanism explains the fluorescence quenching observed in water and results align with experimental data, indicating hydrogen-bonded keto form stabilization both in water and ACN.

Effects of Cannabidiol on Innate Immunity: Experimental Evidence and Clinical Relevance

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the main non-psychotropic cannabinoid derived from cannabis (Cannabis sativa L., fam. Cannabaceae). CBD has received approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome. However, CBD also has prominent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects; evidence exists that it could be beneficial in chronic inflammation, and even in acute inflammatory conditions, such as those due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this work, we review available evidence concerning CBD's effects on the modulation of innate immunity. Despite the lack so far of clinical studies, extensive preclinical evidence in different models, including mice, rats, guinea pigs, and even ex vivo experiments on cells from human healthy subjects, shows that CBD exerts a wide range of inhibitory effects by decreasing cytokine production and tissue infiltration, and acting on a variety of other inflammation-related functions in several innate immune cells. Clinical studies are now warranted to establish the therapeutic role of CBD in diseases with a strong inflammatory component, such as multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, cancer, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.

Inflammation, anxiety, and stress in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder: A narrative review

Bipolar disorder (BD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are serious and prevalent psychiatric diseases that share common phenomenological characteristics: symptoms (such as anxiety, affective lability or emotion dysregulation), neuroimaging features, risk factors and comorbidities. While several studies have focused on the link between stress and peripheral inflammation in other affective disorders such as anxiety or depression, fewer have explored this relationship in BD and BPD. This review reports on evidence showing an interplay between immune dysregulation, anxiety and stress, and how an altered acute neuroendocrine stress response may exist in these disorders. Moreover, we highlight limitations and confounding factors of these existing studies and discuss multidirectional hypotheses that either suggest inflammation or stress and anxiety as the primum movens in BD and BPD pathophysiology, or inflammation as a consequence of the pathophysiology of these diseases. Untangling these associations and implementing a transdiagnostic approach will have diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic implications for BD and BPD patients.

Novel plasma metabolite markers of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder identified using high-performance chemical isotope labelling-based liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

OBJECTIVES

Metabolites are the intermediate and final products of biological processes and ultimately reflect the responses of these processes to genetic regulation and environmental perturbations, including those involved in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

METHODS

We identified a quantitative profile of plasma metabolites in 58 ADHD patients (mean age 9.0 years, 77.6% males) and 38 healthy control subjects (mean age 10.2 years, 55.3% males) using the high-performance chemical isotope labelling (CIL)-based liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Using a volcano plot and orthogonal projections to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), we determined nine metabolites with differentially expressed levels in ADHD plasma samples.

RESULTS

Compared to the control group, the plasma levels of guanosine, O-phosphoethanolamine, phenyl-leucine, hypoxanthine, 4-aminohippuric acid, 5-hydroxylysine, and L-cystine appeared increased in the ADHD patients, whilegentisic acid and tryptophyl-phenylalanine were down-regulated in the patients with ADHD. We found that the plasma levels of all nine metabolites were able to discriminate the ADHD group from the control group. Levels of O-phosphoethanolamine, 4-aminohippuric acid, 5-hydroxylysine, L-cystine, tryptophyl-phenylalanine, and gentisic acid were significantly correlated with clinical ADHD symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first to use the CIL-based LC-MS to profile ADHD plasma metabolites, and we identified nine novel metabolite biomarkers of ADHD.