Prediagnostic plasma branched-chain amino acids and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Neurology
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether prediagnostic levels of plasma branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk.

METHODS: We included participants from 5 large cohort studies-The Nurses' Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition, the Multiethnic Cohort Study, and the Women's Health Initiative-and identified 275 individuals who developed ALS during follow-up. Two controls were randomly selected for each case, matched on cohort, age, sex, fasting status, and time of blood draw. We measured metabolites using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and used conditional logistic regression to estimate rate ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association of individual BCAAs with ALS risk.

RESULTS: None of the 3 BCAAs was associated with a higher ALS risk. The risk estimates were similar for leucine (RR top vs bottom quartile: 0.87, 95% CI 0.57-1.33), isoleucine (RR top vs bottom quartile: 0.81, 95% CI 0.52-1.24), and valine (RR top vs bottom quartile: 0.80, 95% CI 0.52-1.23) in a multivariable analysis adjusted for body mass index, smoking, level of education, and physical activity. The estimates did not vary significantly by sex, fasting status, or time interval between blood draw and disease onset.

CONCLUSION: The results from this study do not support the hypothesis that BCAAs are risk factors for ALS.

Year of Publication
2019
Journal
Neurology
Volume
92
Issue
18
Pages
e2081-e2088
Date Published
2019 Apr 30
ISSN
1526-632X
DOI
10.1212/WNL.0000000000006669
PubMed ID
30429276
PubMed Central ID
PMC6512885
Links
Grant list
P30 DK040561 / DK / NIDDK NIH HHS / United States
P30 ES005605 / ES / NIEHS NIH HHS / United States
U01 CA167552 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
UM1 CA167552 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
U01 CA164973 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States