Blood test to predict pathological brain activity in psychiatric and neurological diseases
2024
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
In the present study, researchers investigate the potential of extracellular vesicle (EV) mRNAs as tissue-specific biomarkers for detecting pathological brain activities that are associated with the occurrence of postpartum depression (PPD) and other psychiatric or neurological diseases. The experimental approach builds on previous results in which aberrant EV communication was observed in the blood of pregnant women with subsequent PPD. This suggests that analysis of EV mRNA by a simple blood test can be used to predict pathological organ changes (particularly in difficult-to-reach organs such as the brain). In addition to the use of publicly available big data sets, the blood samples of the study participants form the basis of the following studies. In order to prove that EV mRNA can be validly assigned to its tissue of origin, the researchers first examined a human model of the placenta using bioinformatic gene expression analysis. 23 placenta-specific biomarkers were identified that only appeared in the blood of pregnant women with subsequent PPD. The researchers then examined EV communication in specially developed mini-brains derived from human stem cells. The analysis detected 13 biomarkers in the brain-specific, female transcripts that were associated with the occurrence of PPD. In addition, in further series of tests, increased gene expression patterns in brain-specific EV mRNAs were observed, which are associated with psychiatric/neurological diseases such as schizophrenia or epilepsy. In summary, the results of the study demonstrate the high potential of a simple blood test, as a non-invasive method, for assessing specific organ functionality, which can help to improve the prevention and treatment of psychiatric and neurological diseases.
Blood extracellular vesicles carrying brain-specific mRNAs are potential biomarkers for detecting gene expression changes in the female brain
Sarven Sabunciyan
Added on: 03-13-2024
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02384-6[2] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2024/02/johns-hopkins-researchers-make-progress-toward-developing-blood-tests-for-psychiatric-and-neurological-disorders
