Recent Advancements in Bipolar Disorder studies through Genomic, Epigenomic and Metagenomic Approaches

• Bipolar disorder is a complex and highly heritable psychiatric disorder characterized by severe mood alterations. The precise geneticunderpinnings of the disease have not been identified so far, despite numerous genome-wide association findings. This review describes thecurrent state of genetic studies based on next generation sequencing technologies including whole exome and whole genome sequencing, aswell as RNA-sequencing and highlights the fact that the integration of these studies can reveal novel knowledge such as the functional roleof gene variants. However, due to the complexity of bipolar disorder, it is a compelling candidate for studies beyond DNA and RNAsequencing. Epigenetic alterations, defined as heritable but reversible modifications including DNA methylation, DNAhydroxymethylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs may be the link between genome and environment interactions.Additionally, a possible source of the reported immune activation in bipolar disorder is the micro biome of gastrointestinal tract, due torecent studies that indicate its pivotal role in brain function through the ‘gut-brain’ axis. The identification of methods able to modulate themicro biome emerges as a promising path for novel diagnostic and treatment options in bipolar disorder, thus the number of metagenomicstudies in bipolar disorder has substantially increased the last years. Overall, the paper aims to review the most recent literature ongenomic, epigenomic and metagenomic studies that have contributed to our understanding of the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder sofar. The paper also focuses on the exploitation of recent advancements in high-throughput technologies for the elucidation of bipolardisorder through different approaches that may provide complementary knowledge and concludes to the need for merging the gap betweenall the gathered knowledge from the analysis of high-throughput data.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Psykiatri (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Psychiatry (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bipolar disorder

Whole exome sequencing

Whole genome sequencing

Metagenomics

Epigenomics

RNA sequencing

Psychiatry

Psykiatri

Medicine

Medicin

Biomedicin

Biomedicine

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