Bipolar Affective Disorder: a transcriptome data study

• Grant number: 22/13842-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: March 25, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Immunogenetics
• Principal Investigator: Helder Takashi Imoto Nakaya
• Grantee: Leandro Tiburske
• Host Institution: Instituto Israelita de Ensino e Pesquisa Albert Einstein (IIEPAE). Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein (SBIBAE). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/08216-2 - CRID - Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases, AP.CEPID
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/05903-0 - Metagenomics data analysis to unravel the impact of high-fat diet on the development of affective disorders through immune-microbiome interactions, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Bipolar Affective Disorder (BD) is a very debilitating psychiatric condition characterized by the presence of depressive episodes and manic or hypomanic episodes that affect sexes in different ways, since female individuals tend to have a more depressive profile and rapid cycling, whereas males tend to have more manic episodes and a high rate of hospitalization due to mania. Previous results identified several differentially expressed genes between BD and control individuals as sex dependent: in males, mitochondrial pseudogenes are differentially expressed and, in females, endothelin 1 pathway is enriched. Considering Bipolar Disorder's heterogeneity, it is important to understand its sexual dimorphism to achieve more efficient therapy approaches. To this end, publicly available data will be obtained and will have their molecular degree perturbation analyzed to identify possible outlier samples. After grouping patients according to sex and diagnosis, differential expression analysis will return differentially expresses RNAs between BD and healthy control samples. Pathway enrichment analysis will contribute to the knowledge of molecular mechanisms responsible for BD and gene coexpression analysis will enable new molecular drug targets discovery. Moreover, integration of sex-specific differentially expressed genes with single-nuclei and spatial transcriptomics data will elucidate which cell types and tissue alterations are related to this psychiatric condition. Therefore, the present project will help improving pharmacological treatment of Bipolar Disorder individuals, which could decrease the probability of adverse clinical outcomes, incorrect drug prescription and suicide related to the condition.