Have you taken a step closer to a blood test to diagnose a mood disorder?

Blood-based biomarkers are frequently used in the diagnosis of various illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, anemia, heart disease and HIV.

Identifying, characterization, and clinical development of blood biomarkers requires a solid understanding of the basis of the disease and how it affects the human body. Once we can clearly conclude that a particular molecular phenotype is directly related to the disease, we can use that profile to build a database of biomarkers that can be measured and quantified for diagnosis and prediction of disease onset. I can do it.

A medical area where blood-based biomarkers can have serious implications is psychiatry. It is a well-known area that faces many challenges in effectively diagnosing and treating patients and relies heavily on subjective self-reported measurements and clinical judgment.

Professor Alexander Niculesque Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are focusing on research on improving precision diagnosis and pharmacological treatment in psychiatry.He is a senior author of a new study published in Molecular psychiatry This outlines the development of the following RNA biomarker-based blood tests:

• Distinguish how serious an individual’s depression is
• Determine the risk of a patient developing severe depression in the future
• Determine the risk of future bipolar disorder
• Patient-friendly medication selection

“Blood biomarkers offer the benefits of real-world clinical practice. Neuropsychiatric disorders because the brain is not easily biopsied in living individuals and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is less accessible than blood. We have been working for many years to identify blood biomarkers in the study, “the author of the study wrote in a paper.

The study, which has been conducted for four years and is based on some of the previous studies of Niculescu and colleagues, employs a long-term, in-subject study method that discovered and validated blood biomarkers. Mood and suicide.. “We sought to identify clearer biomarkers of common mood disorders, especially depression, using a similar comprehensive approach,” the authors say.

The survey included more than 300 participants, primarily recruited from the Indianapolis VA Medical Center. Three independent cohorts were used throughout the sample. Discovery cohort, Verification With the cohort test cohort. Researchers describe the various studies of comprehensive longitudinal research as “accumulated in an innovative and comprehensive way.”

“We have pioneered the field of precision medicine in psychiatry for the past 20 years, especially the last 10 years. This research represents the current state-of-the-art results of our efforts. […] This is part of our efforts to bring psychiatry to the 19th and 21st centuries. To help it become like other modern disciplines like oncology. Ultimately, the mission is to save and improve lives. – Niculescu in a Press release..

Participants were monitored during the course of a four-year study. The first test visit was followed by up to 6 test visits at intervals of 3 to 6 months. Or It occurred when a participant’s psychiatric hospitalization was recorded. At each visit, blood samples were taken and whole blood RNA was extracted for microarray gene transcription analysis. Its purpose is to identify whether there have been changes in the transcription of specific genes across these different mood states.

Scientists have leveraged a large database of data collected from previous studies in this area to reciprocally validate and prioritize a subset of the 26 biomarkers identified during the discovery phase of the study. It was. They then tested putative biomarkers to analyze their usefulness in predicting who is ill and who will become ill in the future.

Niculescu and the team also investigated the biological pathways associated with 26 biomarker candidates to better understand the molecular basis of mood disorders. They suggest that circadian, neuronutrient and cell differentiation functions are involved, along with serotonergic and glutamatergic signaling, and support the view of mood as a reflection of activity and growth. ” writing.

Researchers believe their work is “a major step towards understanding, diagnosing, and treating mood disorders,” and the biomarkers revealed in the study prevent such disorders before they appear. I hope it helps you to do it.

reference: Le-Niculescu H, Roseberry K, Gill SS, Precision Medicine for Other Mood Disorders: Objective Assessment, Risk Prediction, Pharmacological Genomics, and Reused Drugs. Molecular psychiatry.. 2021. doi: 10.1038 / s41380-021-01061-w..