posted on 2024-06-03, 02:11authored byTompson-Mennitz, A
Social-cognitive difficulties in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) have devastating psychosocial impacts, yet assessment is challenging and treatments scarce. This pilot longitudinal study examined the potential role of inflammatory cytokines and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) as predictive biomarkers of social-cognitive abilities in people with MS (pwMS). Seventeen pwMS (13 female, 18-62 years old) provided blood samples and were assessed for the social-cognitive domains of emotion recognition and sarcasm detection tapping into Theory of Mind, using The Awareness of Social Inference Test-Short (TASIT-S) at baseline and after 5-to-6 years. As hypothesised, higher levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 related to better sarcasm detection. However, relationships between pro-inflammatory cytokines and TASIT-S scores were unexpected, with lower levels of cytokines relating to better emotion recognition, but higher levels relating to better sarcasm detection at baseline and follow-up. TASIT-S scores and cytokine levels did not change over time. Select cytokines and NAD+ may be predictive of long-term social-cognitive performance. These pilot results suggest a larger, fully powered study to further examine these relationships is needed. The identification of predictive biomarkers could both facilitate timely assessment and intervention for social-cognitive difficulties, and the development of potential pharmacotherapeutic targets, which would improve health-related quality of life in pwMS.