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A miRNome analysis of drug-free manic psychotic bipolar patients versus healthy controls

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Abstract

The lifetime presence of psychotic symptoms is associated with more clinical severity, poorer outcome and biological changes in patients affected by bipolar disorder (BD). Epigenetic mechanisms have been evoked to explain the onset of psychotic symptoms in BD as well as the associated biological changes. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the expression profiles of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in drug-free manic psychotic bipolar patients versus healthy controls (HC), to identify possible non-invasive molecular markers of the disorder. 15 drug-free manic psychotic bipolar patients and 9 HC were enrolled and 800 miRNAs expression profile was measured by Nanostring nCounter technology on plasma samples and validated through qPCR. Overall, twelve miRNAs showed a significantly altered expression between the two groups (p < 0.05). Functional annotation of predicted miRNAs targets by MultiMIR R tool showed repression in bipolar patients of genes with a role in neurodevelopment and neurogenesis, and upregulation of genes involved in metabolism regulation. We identified a signature of circulating miRNA characteristic of manic psychotic bipolar patients, suggesting a possible role in neurodevelopment and metabolic processes regulation.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by University of Milan and Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda—Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Medical Genetics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Silvia Tabano, Andrea Terrasi, Patrizia Colapietro, Laura Fontana, Valentina Vaira & Monica Miozzo

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via F. Sforza 35, 20122, Milan, Italy

    Alice Caldiroli, Silvia Grassi, Greta Silvia Carnevali, Marta Serati, A. Carlo Altamura & Massimiliano Buoli

  3. Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Andrea Terrasi, Valentina Vaira & Monica Miozzo

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  1. Silvia Tabano
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Correspondence to Alice Caldiroli.

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Conflict of interest

Dr Buoli has been a Lundbeck consultant. Prof. Altamura has served as consultant or on Advisory Boards for Otsuka, Janssen/Cilag, Lundbeck and Angelini. Drs Tabano, Caldiroli, Terrasi, Colapietro, Grassi, Carnevali, Fontana, Serati, Vaira and Prof. Miozzo do not have any conflict of interest.

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Tabano, S., Caldiroli, A., Terrasi, A. et al. A miRNome analysis of drug-free manic psychotic bipolar patients versus healthy controls. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 270, 893–900 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-019-01057-2

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