Telomere length is highly inherited and associated with hyperactivity-impulsivity in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Telomere length (TL) is highly heritable, and a shorter telomere at birth may increase the risk of age-related problems. Additionally, a shorter TL may represent a biomarker of chronic stress and has been associated with psychiatric disorders. However, no study has explored whether there is an association between TL and the symptoms of one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood: Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). We evaluated 61 (range, 6–16 years) ADHD children and their parents between 2012 and 2014. TL was measured with a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method with telomere signal normalized to the signal from a single copy gene (36B4) to generate a T/S ratio. Family data was processed through a generalized estimated equations (GEE) model to determine the effect of parental TL on children TL. Inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were also evaluated in relation to TL. For the first time, we found general heritability to be the major mechanism explaining interindividual TL variation in ADHD (father-child: 95% CI = 0.35/0.91, p < 0.001; mother-child: 95% CI = 0.38/0.74, p < 0.001). The hyperactive-impulsive dimension of ADHD was related with children’s TL (r = −339, p = 0.008) and maternal TL (r = −264, p = 0.047), but not with paternal TL (p > 0.05). The ADHD inattentive dimension was not significant associated with TL in this study (p > 0.05). TL was shown to be a potential biomarker of the ADHD symptoms burden in families affected by this neurodevelopmental disorder. However, it is crucial that future studies investigating the rate of telomere attrition in relation to psychiatric problems to consider the strong determination of TL at birth by inheritance.

Predicting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder severity from psychosocial stress and stress-response genes: a random forest regression approach

“… 61 , 62 Therefore, while the C-allele of rs4635969 is linked to cancer, individuals carrying the T-allele may be more vulnerable to stress exposure through inhibition of telomerase activity by the HPA axis. Our finding, together with reports on children’s telomere length being related to early social deprivation 63 and hyperactivity/impulsivity, 64 suggests this SNP is of interest for ADHD and G × E research.…”

Stress, Telomeres, and Psychopathology: Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Triad of Early Aging

“…In a sample of 1,158 Chinese undergraduates, greater delay discounting was related to shorter TL, especially in women (Yim et al 2016). In various clinical samples, indices of impulsivity, such as delay discounting (Kang et al 2017) and hyperactive-type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Costa et al 2015), have been related to shorter TL.…”

Heritability of telomere variation: it is all about the environment!

“…as adults and juveniles, respectively), especially in long-lived organisms. Many human studies have attempted to statistically control for parent/offspring age, by including age as a covariate or correcting telomere length for age (but this does not allow for the expected nonlinear relationship), and very few also control for parental age at conception (but see [ 31 , 47 , 54 , 60 , 61 ]). In other species, age has also rarely been fully controlled for ( table 1 ).…”