A University of the Basque Country research team conducted a study to examine the metabolic mechanisms involved in cannabis use and schizophrenia development. Cannabis use disorder (CUD) affects approximately 42% of individuals with schizophrenia. CUD involves problematic patterns of cannabis consumption that interfere with a person’s mental, social, and physical well-being. The study published in Scientific Reports provides valuable insights into the relationship between CUD and this specific psychiatric disorder.
Study participants included 24 adults ages 18-60. The participants had either a CUD diagnosis (24), a schizophrenia diagnosis (18), or a dual diagnosis (12). The controls included voluntary donors who met the criteria for sex and age matching. The participants did not have any other severe mental disorders or medical illnesses.
The researchers used an untargeted lipidomics approach to identify biomarkers in plasma samples from study participants diagnosed with schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, or both. Using liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry resulted in the annotation of 119 metabolites. The analysis achieved the highest identification confidence level for 16 compounds.
The researchers observed a reduction in acylcarnitines (including octanoylcarnitine and decanoylcarnitine) across all patient groups compared to the controls. CUD patients demonstrated a strong downregulation of N-acyl amino acids (NAAAs), particularly N-palmitoyl threonine and N-palmitoyl serine. The team also noted a downregulation pattern in schizophrenia and dual-diagnosis patients. They also detected elevated levels of 7-dehydrodesmosterol in schizophrenia and dual-diagnosis patients in comparison to the control participants.
The findings point to a potential link between metabolic disruptions and the cellular, molecular, and systematic changes associated with both cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia. The untargeted lipidomics approach identifies novel biomarkers efficiently and therapeutic intervention points for early detection and disease progress monitoring. More research is critical for understanding therapeutic strategies that target metabolic pathways that influence these two disorders.
Source: Scientific Reports
