Associations of serum elements and amino acids with autism spectrum disorder

Associations of serum elements and amino acids with autism spectrum disorder | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Associations of serum elements and amino acids with autism spectrum disorder Lailai Yan, Jing Wu, Rongbin Xu, Bing Cao, Wen Wang, Jisheng Han, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6961356/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Accumulating evidence suggests that serum elements and amino acids are associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the conclusions are not exactly consistent. The objective of our study is to investigate the association of serum elements and amino acids with ASD children, and particularly whether there is effect modifiers. A total of 64 children including 34 children with ASD and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were enrolled in Beijing, China. Twenty-six serum elements and nineteen amino acids were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, and amino acid analyzer, respectively. The results indicated that ten elements [copper(Cu), rubidium(Rb), Cesium(Cs), molybdenum(Mo), zinc(Zn), antimony(Sb), aluminum(Al), strontium(Sr), nickel(Ni), vanadium(V)] and two amino acids [phenylalanine(Phe), taurine(Tau)] were significantly lower (p < 0.05), whereas citrulline(Cit), methionine(Met) levels were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in ASD group than healthy controls, after adjusting for the potential confounders. In addition, there were significant interaction effects ( p for interaction < 0.05) of serum elements and amino acids on ASD, such as Zn and Cit, Cu and Phe, V and Met. The findings indicate that metabolic disturbances of various elements and amino acids, especially reduced serum Zn and Tau that related to severe oxidative stress might be associated with increased risk of ASD. Our findings support the feasibility of using the element-amino complexes supplement to some extent, which may pioneer a new pathway for treatment and prevention of ASD. Autism spectrum disorder elements amino acids modification effect Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files FigureS1unadjusted.pdf FigureS2adjusted.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6961356","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":478037057,"identity":"78504220-81e8-4330-afa2-82761f5d43b3","order_by":0,"name":"Lailai Yan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Peking University, Peking University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lailai","middleName":"","lastName":"Yan","suffix":""},{"id":478037061,"identity":"e29e70f5-cfd2-4f97-b676-79ce9e6ca783","order_by":1,"name":"Jing Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Peking 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However, the conclusions are not exactly consistent. The objective of our study is to investigate the association of serum elements and amino acids with ASD children, and particularly whether there is effect modifiers. A total of 64 children including 34 children with ASD and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were enrolled in Beijing, China. Twenty-six serum elements and nineteen amino acids were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, and amino acid analyzer, respectively. The results indicated that ten elements [copper(Cu), rubidium(Rb), Cesium(Cs), molybdenum(Mo), zinc(Zn), antimony(Sb), aluminum(Al), strontium(Sr), nickel(Ni), vanadium(V)] and two amino acids [phenylalanine(Phe), taurine(Tau)] were significantly lower (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), whereas citrulline(Cit), methionine(Met) levels were significantly higher (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) in ASD group than healthy controls, after adjusting for the potential confounders. In addition, there were significant interaction effects (\u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e for interaction\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05) of serum elements and amino acids on ASD, such as Zn and Cit, Cu and Phe, V and Met. The findings indicate that metabolic disturbances of various elements and amino acids, especially reduced serum Zn and Tau that related to severe oxidative stress might be associated with increased risk of ASD. Our findings support the feasibility of using the element-amino complexes supplement to some extent, which may pioneer a new pathway for treatment and prevention of ASD.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Associations of serum elements and amino acids with autism spectrum disorder","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-06-30 05:28:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6961356/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ee83aab5-e835-4ee4-8fba-8430a98654f0","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 30th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-10T02:38:43+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-06-30 05:28:33","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6961356","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6961356","identity":"rs-6961356","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}