Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2024 Jun 13;19(6):e0304261.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304261. eCollection 2024.

Stress and sleep deprivation-related biomarkers in saliva in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Milagros Mateos-Olivares  1   2 , Salvador Pastor-Idoate  2   3   4 , Javier Martín-Vallejo  5 , Cristina García-Vazquez  3 , José Carlos Pastor  3   4 , Ricardo Usategui-Martín  3   4   6 , Eva María Sobas  3   4   7
Affiliations
Observational Study

Stress and sleep deprivation-related biomarkers in saliva in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Milagros Mateos-Olivares et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: Patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) commonly experience sleep-related issues and are susceptible to stress. Moreover, variatiaons in their vision are often linked to anxiety, stress and drowsiness, indicating that stress and sleep deprivation lead to a decline in vision, and vision improves when both are mitigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the utility of salivary biomarkers as biochemical indicators of anxiety and sleep deprivation in RP patients.

Methods: Seventy-eight RP patients and 34 healthy controls were included in this observational study. Anxiety and sleep-quality questionnaires, a complete ophthalmological exam for severity grading and, the collection of salivary samples from participants were assessed for participants. The activity of biomarkers was estimated by ELISA, and statistical analysis was performed to determine associations between the parameters. Associations between underlying psychological factors, grade of disease severity, and biomarkers activity were also examined.

Results: Fifty-two (67%) of patients had a severe RP, and 26 (33%) had a mild-moderate grade. Fifty-eight (58,9%) patients reported severe levels of anxiety and 18 (23.,1%) a high level. Forty-six (59%) patients obtained pathological values in sleep-quality questionaries and 43 (55.1%) in sleepiness. Patients with RP exhibited significant differences in testosterone, cortisol, sTNFαRII, sIgA and melatonin as compared to controls and patients with a mild-moderate and advanced stage of disease showed greater differences. In covariate analysis, patients with a severe anxiety level also showed greater differences in mean salivary cortisol, sTNFαRII and melatonin and male patients showed lower IgA levels than female.

Conclusions: The present findings suggest that salivary biomarkers could be suitable non-invasive biochemical markers for the objective assessment of sleep deprivation and anxiety in RP patients. Further research is needed to characterize the effects of untreated negative psychological states and sleep deprivation on increased variability of vision and disease progression, if any.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

NO authors have competing interests.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean ± SD Log-transformed sSSBC and differences between groups.
Unpaired t-test results.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Mean ± SD Log-transformed sSSBC and differences between groups according to disease stage.
ANOVA results.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Mean ± SD Log-transformed sSSBC and differences between groups according to sex.
ANOVA results.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Mean ± SD Log-transformed sSSBC and differences between groups according to anxiety status.
ANOVA results.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hartong DT, Berson EL, Dryja TP. Retinitis pigmentosa. Lancet. 2006;368: 1795–1809. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69740-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hamel C. Retinitis pigmentosa. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2006;1: 1–12. doi: 10.1186/1750-1172-1-40 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Parmeggiani F, S. Sorrentino F, Ponzin D, Barbaro V, Ferrari S, Di Iorio E. Retinitis pigmentosa: genes and disease mechanisms. Curr Genomics. 2011;12: 238–249. doi: 10.2174/138920211795860107 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Galan A, Chizzolini M, Milan E, Sebastiani A, Costagliola C, Parmeggiani F. Good epidemiologic practice in retinitis pigmentosa: from phenotyping to biobanking. Curr Genomics. 2011;12: 260–266. doi: 10.2174/138920211795860071 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mifsud KR, Reul JMHM. Mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptor-mediated control of genomic responses to stress in the brain. Stress. 2018;21: 389–402. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2018.1456526 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types