Photo Credit: Andrii Zorii
The following is a summary of “Value of plasma cell-free DNA levels as biomarker in patients with eating disorders: A preliminary study,” published in the February 2024 issue of Endocrinology by Verebi, et al.
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the blood has the potential to be a quick and easy way to find people who have eating problems. For a study, researchers sought to look into the idea by measuring cfDNA in the plasma of people with various eating problems.
About 110 people took part in this study, of 98 with eating disorders (30 with bulimia nervosa), 33 with anorexia nervosa (AN) Restricting subtype, 35 with AN Binge-eating/purging subtype, and 12 who were not affected by an eating disorder.
They used two different droplet digital PCR assays for each to measure cf-nDNA (cell-free nuclear DNA) and cf-mtDNA (cell-free mitochondrial DNA). These tests refer to two different amplification sizes. Plasma levels of cf-nDNA and cf-mtDNA were not significantly different between people who did not have eating problems and those who did. They found that people with eating disorders had a higher percentage of long cf-nDNA pieces, which suggests that it is useful as a measure for these disorders. This was the first study to examine cfDNA in people with eating problems.
The results showed that cfDNA could be used for qualitative research but not quantitative research. A full definition of cfDNA could be a useful measure for eating disorders and help them understand the secret processes that cause these conditions to get worse over time. More research needed to be done to prove or disprove the theory.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645302300896X
