Pre- and Post-treatment Levels of Plasma Metabolites in Patients With Bipolar Depression.

Xiang-Jie Guo,Xiang-Xin Cao,Peng Wu,Xiao-Hong Cui,Shuang Bao,Yan Ren,Li-Na Ma,Fei Yu,Jiao Jia

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.747595

Abstract

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental disease with complex clinical manifestations and high recurrence rate. The purpose of this study was to detect metabolites related to the diagnosis and efficacy evaluation of bipolar depression in plasma samples by metabolomics.Methods: Thirty-one bipolar depression patients were recruited and completed 8 weeks medication and a matched group of 47 healthy controls (HCs) was recruited. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to profile plasma samples of bipolar depression patients at baseline and after 8 weeks medication, and HCs. Then Multivariate statistical analysis was performed to analyze differences of plasma metabolites among the three groups.Results: We detected seven specific differential metabolites in bipolar depression. Six of the metabolites were returned to the normal levels in different degrees after 8 weeks medication, only Glycine continuously decreased in the acute and significant improvement stages of bipolar depression (VIP > 1 and p < 0.05). These differential metabolites involved several metabolic pathways.Limitations: The small sample size was one of the most prominent limitations. Each BD patient was given an individualized medication regimen according to the clinical guidelines.Conclusion: There were metabolites changes before and after 8 weeks medication. Glycine may be a characteristic marker of bipolar depression and does not change with the improvement of bipolar depression, while other 6 differential metabolites may be biomarkers associated with the pathological development or the improvement of bipolar depression. And, these differential metabolites mainly related to energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism and gut microbiota metabolism.

Highlights

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic severe mental illness, characterized by the intermittent occurrence of depression and mania
Gender, body mass index (BMI) and marital status between BD patients at baseline and healthy control (HC) were compared using Chi square test or independent samples t-test, and the results indicated no significant differences (p > 0.05)
Depression, anxiety and clinical status of patients with bipolar depression at baseline were shown by HAMD scores, HAMA scores and Clinical General Impression Rating Scale (CGI) scores

Summary

Introduction

BD is a chronic severe mental illness, characterized by the intermittent occurrence of depression and mania (or hypomania). Patients with BD often suffer from comorbid anxiety, substance abuse and other mental diseases, resulting in great damage to their ability to live, study and work. Due to the multi-etiological complexity of the disease, there are no specific biomarkers to guide clinical diagnosis and the evaluation of drug treatment effectiveness. The study of objective markers of BD has always been a hot and difficult research topic. Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental disease with complex clinical manifestations and high recurrence rate. The purpose of this study was to detect metabolites related to the diagnosis and efficacy evaluation of bipolar depression in plasma samples by metabolomics

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Discussion

Conclusion