Study of homocysteine concentration and its relationship with vitamin B12 in children with autism spectrum and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders in southern Libya

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are both severe neurodevelopmental disorders with a significant degree of heritability. They have a significant impact on children's .The objective of this study was to Determine the levels of homocysteine and find out its association with vitamin B12 and folic acid in children diagnosed with ASD and ADHD. Additionally, the study aimed to compare the homocysteine levels in these children with those of typically developing children in the same age group, who served as the control group (CG).This study was conducted on 47 samples of children and adolescents (33 males and 14 girls), whose ages ranged from 3-15 years. They were sorted into two groups: The first group: the study group, which included children with ASD and ADHD, consisting of 27 children (n = 27) diagnosed by specialist physicians according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Classification of Mental Disorders in its fifth edition (DSM-5TM), and the second group: the control group, they comprised 20 healthy children (n = 20). Fasting blood samples were collected from all of them in the morning, and they were placed in tubes that did not contain an anticoagulant to obtain the serum, that was homocysteine, vitamin B12, and folic acid. Statistical analysis was performed on the data using SPSS version 26. The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in the average age of the children (p-value > 0.05), as the average age of the study group (ASD and ADHD) was 8.81 ± 4.2 years and was 10.22 ± 7.2 years for the control group. In contrast, the data showed that there had been a significant difference in the levels of homocysteine and folic acid between the two groups, p-values were 0.002 and 0.035, respectively. In contrast, there was no significant variations in the concentration of vitamin B12 for the two study groups compared to the control group (P = 0.064). The results additionally showed a negative correlation between homocysteine levels and both vitamin B12 and folic acid in the ASD and ADHD study group .This study concluded that there is an increase in homocysteine levels in children with ASD, ADHD compared to healthy children