Challenges to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders have
long been acknowledged in the field. In recent years, efforts have been made to identify
genomic biomarkers for psychiatric disorders. A link between immune function and major
depressive disorder (MDD) has been suggested for decades (
1
), but the identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that underlie immune
function as biomarkers for MDD has been more recent. Hundreds of DEGs have been reported
for transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) of MDD. However, the majority of
DEGs reported among individual studies do not overlap, making prioritization of candidate
biomarkers challenging. Thus, integrating findings from multiple studies is critical
to establish reliable DEGs as biomarkers for MDD. Leveraging publicly available datasets,
Wittenberg et al. (
2
) demonstrated that integration of gene expression data from multiple studies provides
new insights on immune gene function and gene networks for MDD. The identified genes
and networks could serve as biomarkers for MDD.
- Wittenberg G.M.
- Greene J.
- Vértes P.E.
- Drevets W.C.
- Bullmore E.T.
Major depressive disorder is associated with differential expression of innate immune
and neutrophil-related gene networks in peripheral blood: A quantitative review of
whole-genome transcriptional data from case-control studies.
Biol Psychiatry. 2020; 88: 625-637
SEE CORRESPONDING ARTICLE ON PAGE 625
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References
- Cytokines sing the blues: Inflammation and the pathogenesis of depression.Trends Immunol. 2006; 27: 24-31
- Major depressive disorder is associated with differential expression of innate immune and neutrophil-related gene networks in peripheral blood: A quantitative review of whole-genome transcriptional data from case-control studies.Biol Psychiatry. 2020; 88: 625-637
- Biomarkers and surrogate endpoints: Preferred definitions and conceptual framework.Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2001; 69: 89-95
- Evidence for an immune response in major depression: A review and hypothesis.Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 1995; 19: 11-38
- RNA sequencing: The teenage years.Nat Rev Genet. 2019; 20: 631-656
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- A review of DNA methylation in depression.J Clin Neurosci. 2017; 43: 39-46
- Proteomics for blood biomarker exploration of severe mental illness: Pitfalls of the past and potential for the future.Transl Psychiatry. 2018; 8: 160
- More is better: Recent progress in multi-omics data integration methods.Front Genet. 2017; 8: 84
- Methods of integrating data to uncover genotype-phenotype interactions.Nat Rev Genet. 2015; 16: 85-97
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 29,
2020
Received in revised form:
July 28,
2020
Received:
July 18,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
