MedWire News: Bipolar disorder (BD) patients show significant differences in serum chemokine levels compared with healthy individuals that may act as markers for the disorder, Brazilian study findings indicate.

There is evidence to suggest that BD is associated with changes in neuroplasticity and neuronal survival, which could be affected by inflammatory mediators; further evidence points to the involvement of inflammatory cytokines in BD.

To investigate, Flávio Kapczinski, from the National Institute for Translational Medicine in Porto Allegre, and colleagues measured serum levels of the cytokines CCL2, CCL3, CXCL8, CXCL9, CXCL10, CCL11, and CCL24 in 30 euthymic bipolar I disorder patients and 30 healthy controls.

There were no differences between patients and controls in terms of age, gender, ethnic group, and years of schooling, the team reports in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

Patients were found to have significantly higher serum levels of CXCL10 than controls, at 10.00 pg/ml versus 0.00 pg/ml, and significantly lower levels of CCL24, at 1320.09 pg/ml versus 1719.54 pg/ml. There were no other significant differences in cytokine levels, and no correlation between chemokine levels and duration of disorder.

“If the present findings are corroborated by future reports, they could possibly open a new path in the field of BD treatment options and in neuroscience research as a whole, contributing to the understanding of the complex and delicate balance between neuronal life and death,” the researchers write.

“Such a complexity should be taken into account in the development of drugs that exert their effects through chemokines and that might have a therapeutic use in BD.”

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