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Changes in Lipids Provide Clues to Bipolar Disorder

Information from the research can be used in the future in diagnostics and drug development

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Research developed at Unicamp indicates that lipids are potential biomarkers of bipolar disorder. From the analysis of blood serum samples, chemist Henrique Caracho Ribeiro identified changes common to patients with bipolar disorder and which distinguished them from the control group in a class of lipids called glycerophospholipids. “This differentiation can be important in the development of diagnostic tests and new treatments”, says Professor Alessandra Sussulini, research advisor. The work gave rise to the master's thesis “Evaluation of the lipid profile in blood serum samples from people with bipolar disorder using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry”, defended at the Institute of Chemistry (IQ) at Unicamp.

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Henrique Caracho Ribeiro, author of the research: “We needed to know which classes of lipids were contributing most to the differentiation between the bipolar patient and the healthy person”

As Sussulini explains, the disease is known for its clinical symptoms, for the mood changes that the patient presents, and there is no biochemical test that can confirm the diagnosis. The study of changes in patients' metabolism allows a better understanding of how the disease acts on the body. “It is not an easy task because it is not just one molecule that is altered as a result of the disease. We have to look at metabolism as a whole and find some clues that identify which ones are really being affected. In the future, this information can be used to confirm a diagnosis and to guide the development of medicines by indicating which metabolic pathway the drugs should act on to stabilize the patient”, he explains.

Lipids are key molecules in metabolism. They are constituent parts of the cell membrane responsible for various biological functions, such as energy reserve, electrical and thermal insulation. They were identified as potential biomarkers of bipolar disorder in the professor's doctoral research, completed in 2010 also at IQ. “I looked at general metabolomics, looking for what it could be altered as a result of the disease, and lipids were the metabolites that showed the most important difference”, he says. In Ribeiro's research, more sophisticated and sensitive techniques were used to identify, more specifically, which lipids were altered. “Lipids have at least eight classes. We needed to know which of them were contributing most to the differentiation between the bipolar patient and the healthy person”, explains the researcher.

Photo: Scarpa
Professor Alessandra Sussulini, research advisor: “We have to look at metabolism as a whole and find some clues that identify which ones are really being affected”

Biological materials (blood serum) from 35 individuals were analyzed, 14 of whom were bipolar and the others were the control group. The technique used was mass spectrometry coupled to liquid chromatography. The data obtained went through a multivariate statistical analysis, which determined which lipids presented changes that contributed to the differentiation between the two groups, bipolar and control. The analyzes were carried out in partnership with Professor Marcos Eberlin, at the Thomson Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

 

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Henrique Caracho Ribeiro, author of the dissertation | Photo: Antonio Scarpinetti

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