Study on the epigenetic methylation modification of bipolar disorder major genes

H.-S. Zhang, X.-Y. Ke, L.-L. Hu, J. Wang, L.-S. Gao, J. Xie

Department of Clinical Psychology, Hangzhou Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. zhanghaisheng3065@126.com

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• Psychology

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to study changes and possible roles of epigenetic modification of candidate genes in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder, and provide the basis for clinical diagnosis and analysis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 150 patients with bipolar disorder were enrolled in this study from January 2014 to June 2015; also, 50 healthy subjects were enrolled as control group. The patients were followed up for 18 months and followed up once every 3 months to review the methylation status. The methylation status was examined before and after treatment, and the patients were followed up every 3 months after treatment, and the follow-up period was 18 months.

RESULTS: Compared with the healthy control group, there were 2075 CpG island aberrant methylation points in patients with bipolar disorder, which can be divided into 24 categories. Log-Ratio > 0.5 was used as the positive criteria, and COMT and PPIEL were identified as the genes associated with bipolar disorder. Compared with the control group, the levels of COMT and PPIEL gene methylation in the observation group were significantly higher (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the methylation level of COMT and PPIEL gene between the two groups (p > 0.05) after 12 months of treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: The methylation level of COMT and PPIEL gene is closely related to bipolar disorder.

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