A Simple Blood Test Detects Suicidal Tendencies in Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder
|
By LabMedica International staff writers Posted on 06 May 2022 |
|
A gene expression signature found in blood and brain tissue from individuals with major depressive disorder seemed to be associated with the likelihood of development of suicidal behavior.
Suicide is a serious global public health problem that accounts for close to 800,000 deaths per year, and since major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common diagnosis among suicides, identifying those at the highest risk for suicide is a pressing challenge.
To meet this challenge, investigators at the University of California, Irvine (USA) collected blood and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) samples from MDD patients who died by suicide (MDD-S), MDDs who died by other means (MDD-NS), and non-psychiatric controls. Gene expression was analyzed using RNA and the NanoString (Seattle, WA, USA) platform.
Results revealed 14 genes in the blood samples that significantly differentiated MDD-S versus MDD-NS. The top six genes differentially expressed in blood were: PER3, MTPAP, SLC25A26, CD19, SOX9, and GAR1. Additionally, four genes showed significant changes in brain and blood between MDD-S and MDD-NS; SOX9 was decreased and PER3 was increased in MDD-S in both tissues, while CD19 and TERF1 were increased in blood but decreased in DLPFC. These changes in gene expression reflected stress response, including polyamine metabolism, circadian rhythm, immune dysregulation, and telomere maintenance.
“These blood biomarkers are an important step toward developing blood tests to identify patients with imminent risk of ending their lives,” said senior author Dr. Adolfo Sequeira, associate researcher in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze blood and brain samples in a well-defined population of MDDs demonstrating significant differences in gene expression associated with completed suicide.”
The study was published in the April 14, 2022, online edition of the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Related Links:
University of California, Irvine
NanoString
Latest Molecular Diagnostics News
- FDA Clears At-Home HPV Test with Extended Genotyping for Cervical Screening
- Extracellular Vesicle RNA Biomarkers Enable Noninvasive IBD Diagnosis and Monitoring
- New Gene Signature Reveals Underdiagnosed Lung Cancer Subtype
- Genome Sequencing Identifies Noncoding Variants Causing Neonatal Diabetes
- Genetic Markers Predict GLP-1 Weight-Loss Response and Side Effects
- Noninvasive Urine Test Predicts Recurrence After BCG in Bladder Cancer
- Mesothelioma in Younger Adults Linked to Genetic Risk Factors
- Genetic Marker Predicts Early Heart Failure in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
- Immune Signatures in Blood Help Inform Cancer Risk in Lynch Syndrome
- Simple Blood Test Enables Multi-Disease Detection from Single Sample
- Rapid Point-of-Care RT-PCR Test Differentiates Influenza A/B and SARS-CoV-2 in Minutes
- Blood-Based ctDNA Test Enhances Risk Assessment in HPV-Related Throat Cancer
- WGS MCED Assay Demonstrates Rising Sensitivity and High Specificity
- ctDNA MRD Test Identifies Breast Cancer Patients Who May Avoid Surgery
- Genomic Subtyping Assays Identify High-Risk Early-Stage Breast Cancers
- RNA Profiling Uncovers Therapeutic Targets in Solid Tumors
Channels
Clinical Chemistry
view channel
AI-Enabled POC Test Quantifies Multiple Cardiac Biomarkers
Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of death, responsible for nearly 20 million deaths each year. Timely triage of myocardial infarction and heart failure hinges on rapid cardiac biomarker measurement,... Read more
Next Generation Automated Analyzers Increase Throughput for Clinical Chemistry and Electrolyte Testing
Clinical laboratories continue to face staffing shortages, limited space, and growing test volumes that pressure chemistry and electrolyte workflows. Maintaining rapid turnaround times increasingly depends... Read more
Hematology
view channel
Prognostic Tool Guides Personalized Treatment in Rare Blood Cancer
Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a rare blood cancer in which acquired genetic mutations in bone marrow stem cells drive disease. Stem cell transplantation is the only curative option but carries... Read more
New Platelet Function Assay Enables Monitoring of Antiplatelet Therapy
Monitoring response to antiplatelet therapy remains challenging for many clinical laboratories. Aggregation-based assays and cartridge systems often require specialized personnel, dedicated instruments,... Read more
Immunology
view channel
Study Finds Influenza Often Undiagnosed in Winter Deaths
Seasonal influenza drives substantial excess mortality, yet its contribution is often obscured when infections go undiagnosed near the time of death. Many deaths occur outside hospitals or in older adults... Read more
Combined Screening Approach Identifies Early Leprosy Cases
Leprosy remains a significant public health concern, with more than 200,000 new cases reported globally each year and early disease often escaping routine laboratory detection. In its initial phase, bacterial... Read more
Microbiology
view channel
RNA-Based Workflow Identifies Active Skin Microbes for Dermatology Research
Human skin carries diverse microbial communities that influence barrier function and inflammation, yet identifying which organisms are metabolically active has been challenging. DNA-based surveys catalog... Read more
Cost-Effective Sampling and Sequencing Workflow Identifies ICU Infection Hotspots
Intensive care units face persistent threats from hospital-acquired infections, increasingly driven by drug-resistant bacteria. Rapidly pinpointing environmental reservoirs and transmission hotspots remains... Read more
Pathology
view channel
AI Improves Completeness of Complex Cancer Pathology Reports
Oncology teams increasingly rely on pathology reports that integrate histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and rapidly expanding biomarker testing. As patients live longer and undergo repeated analyses... Read more
AI Tool Predicts Chemotherapy Response in Small Cell Lung Cancer
Small cell lung cancer often presents at an extensive stage and progresses rapidly, leaving little time to tailor first-line therapy. Clinicians currently lack biomarkers to guide which patients will benefit... Read more_image.png "Image: Through neoadjuvant therapy combining chemotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for 46 LAGC patients and single-cell transcriptome sequencing, researchers found that tumor cells in the treatment-sensitive group specifically upregulated MHC-II (tumor-specific major histocompatibility complex class II, tsMHC-II) molecules (photo courtesy of Science China Press)")
Tumor-Specific Biomarker Predicts Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy Response in Gastric Cancer
Gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, with China bearing nearly half of the global burden. Only a subset of patients benefit from... Read more
Technology
view channel
Noninvasive Sputum Test Detects Early Lung Cancer
Early detection remains critical for improving outcomes in lung cancer, yet clinicians increasingly encounter indeterminate pulmonary nodules found incidentally or through screening, complicating decision-making.... Read more
New AI Tool Enables Rapid Treatment Selection in Pediatric Leukemia
Children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia face an aggressive disease that remains difficult to treat. Although remission rates have improved, many survivors experience long-term effects from intensive... Read more
Breakthrough Mass Spectrometry Design Could Enable Ultra-Low Abundance Detection
Mass spectrometry is central to identifying and quantifying molecules in complex biological samples, but conventional instruments typically analyze ions sequentially, which can limit detection of rare species.... Read more
Industry
view channel
GRAIL Partners with Epic to Integrate Multi-Cancer Test into EHR
GRAIL’s Galleri multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test is being integrated into Epic’s electronic health record (EHR) platform through Epic Aura. The collaboration is designed to let clinicians at interested... Read more
