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Publications

Journal Article Ppublish 2 citations

PubMed: 40578003 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107506

Saliva and blood cell-free mtDNA reactivity to acute psychosocial stress.

Psychoneuroendocrinology 179:107506

Authors: Caroline Trumpff, David Shire, Jeremy Michelson, Natalia Bobba-Alves, Temmie Yu, Richard P Sloan, Robert-Paul Juster, Michio Hirano, Martin Picard

Affiliations

  • Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, United States.
  • Department of Psychiatry and Addiction, University of Montreal, Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, 2900 boulevard Édouard-Montpetit, Montréal, Québec H3T 1J4, Canada.
  • H. Houston Merritt Center for Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Disorders, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, United States.
  • Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, United States; H. Houston Merritt Center for Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Disorders, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, United States; Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th Street, 4th Floor Suite 410, MSPH Box 25, New York, NY 10032, United States; New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, United States.

Abstract

Human blood contains cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cf-mtDNA) that dynamically increases in concentration in response to acute mental stress. Like other neuroendocrine stress markers, we previously found that cf-mtDNA is also detectable in saliva, calling for studies examining saliva cf-mtDNA reactivity to mental stress. In the present study, participants from the MiSBIE (Mitochondrial Stress, Brain Imaging, and Epigenetics) study (n = 68, 66 % women), were exposed to a brief socio-evaluative stressor, which induced a striking 280 % or 2.8-fold increase in saliva cf-mtDNA concentration within 10 min (g=0.55, p < 0.0001). In blood drawn concurrently with saliva sampling, stress increased cf-mtDNA by an average 32 % at 60 min in serum (g=0.20), but not in anticoagulated plasma where cf-mtDNA decreased by 19 % at 60 min (g=0.25). Examining the influence of mitochondrial health on cf-mtDNA reactivity in participants with rare mitochondrial diseases (MitoD), we report that a subset of MitoD participants exhibit markedly blunted saliva cf-mtDNA stress reactivity, suggesting that bioenergetic defects within mitochondria may influence the magnitude of saliva, and possibly blood cf-mtDNA responses. Our results document robust saliva cf-mtDNA stress reactivity and provide a methodology to examine the psychobiological regulation of cell-free mitochondria in future studies.

MeSH

Endocrinology, Cells, Blood, Stress, Physiological, Mitochondria, Dna, Mitochondrial, Blood Cells, Psychiatry