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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research article

Dysregulation of leukocyte gene expression in women with medication-refractory depression versus healthy non-depressed controls

Authors: Eli Iacob, Kathleen C Light, Scott C Tadler, Howard R Weeks, Andrea T White, Ronald W Hughen, Timothy A VanHaitsma, Lowry Bushnell, Alan R Light

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

Depressive Disorders (DD) are a great financial and social burden. Females display 70% higher rate of depression than males and more than 30% of these patients do not respond to conventional medications. Thus medication-refractory female patients are a large, under-served, group where new biological targets for intervention are greatly needed.

Methods

We used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to evaluate mRNA gene expression from peripheral blood leukocytes for 27 genes, including immune, HPA-axis, ion channels, and growth and transcription factors. Our sample included 23 females with medication refractory DD: 13 with major depressive disorder (MDD), 10 with bipolar disorder (BPD). Our comparison group was 19 healthy, non-depressed female controls. We examined differences in mRNA expression in DD vs. controls, in MDD vs. BPD, and in patients with greater vs. lesser depression severity.

Results

DD patients showed increased expression for IL-10, IL-6, OXTR, P2RX7, P2RY1, and TRPV1. BPD patients showed increased APP, CREB1, NFKB1, NR3C1, and SPARC and decreased TNF expression. Depression severity was related to increased IL-10, P2RY1, P2RX1, and TRPV4 expression.

Conclusions

These results support prior findings of dysregulation in immune genes, and provide preliminary evidence of dysregulation in purinergic and other ion channels in females with medication-refractory depression, and in transcription and growth factors in those with BPD. If replicated in future research examining protein levels as well as mRNA, these pathways could potentially be used to explore biological mechanisms of depression and to develop new drug targets.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Dysregulation of leukocyte gene expression in women with medication-refractory depression versus healthy non-depressed controls
Authors
Eli Iacob
Kathleen C Light
Scott C Tadler
Howard R Weeks
Andrea T White
Ronald W Hughen
Timothy A VanHaitsma
Lowry Bushnell
Alan R Light
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-13-273

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