Araos, PedroVidal, RebecaO'Shea, EstherPedraz, MaríaGarcía-Marchena, NuriaSerrano, AntoniaSuárez, JuanCastilla-Ortega, EstelaRuiz, Juan JesúsCampos-Cloute, RafaelSantín, Luis JRodríguez de Fonseca, FernandoPavón, Francisco JavierColado, María Isabel2023-02-082023-02-082019-11-14http://hdl.handle.net/10668/14691The lack of effective treatments and a high rate of relapse in cocaine addiction constitute a major health problem. The present study was conducted to examine the expression of tryptophan-derived metabolites in the context of cocaine addiction and psychiatric comorbidity, which is common in addicted subjects. Abstinent patients with cocaine use disorder (CUD) and control subjects were recruited for a cross-sectional study. Participants were assessed with a semi-structured diagnostic interview (PRISM) based on DSM-IV-TR for substance and mental disorders. Plasma concentrations of tryptophan metabolites and their association with relevant CUD-related variables and psychiatric comorbidity were explored. We observed decreased plasma kynurenic acid concentrations in the cocaine group, however no associations between CUD-related variables and tryptophan-derived metabolites were found. In contrast, 5-HT concentrations were increased in CUD-patients and the diagnosis of different psychiatric disorders in the cocaine group was related to higher plasma 5-HT concentrations compared with non-comorbid patients. Therefore, while changes in plasma kynurenic acid concentrations appear to be directly associated with lifetime CUD, changes in 5-HT concentrations are associated with psychiatric comorbidity. These results emphasize the need to find potential biomarkers for a better stratification of cocaine-addicted patients in order to develop therapeutic approaches to prevent cocaine relapse.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/AdultCase-Control StudiesCocaine-Related DisordersComorbidityCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansKynurenic AcidMaleMental DisordersSerotoninTryptophanresearch article31727978open access10.1038/s41598-019-53312-02045-2322PMC6856167https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53312-0.pdfhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6856167/pdf