In an article published in the journal Psychiatry Research, Brazilian researchers describe a set of molecular changes present in the brain and blood of individuals who committed suicide. According to the authors, the objective was to identify susceptibility factors and potential therapeutic targets.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 700 people die by suicide every year around the world. Among young people, a term that refers to the age group from 15 to 29 years old, the impact of suicide is particularly alarming, representing the fourth leading cause of death. The data, from 2019, were obtained from the latest edition of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), an epidemiological study that brings together more than 200 countries and provides a comprehensive picture of the main causes of mortality and global disability.
Several risk factors are associated with suicide, including family history, personality traits, socioeconomic conditions, exposure to harmful ideas on social media and the presence of psychiatric disorders, especially depression and bipolar disorder. “However, despite the enormous psychological, social and economic impact generated by suicide deaths, risk identification is only based on clinical interviews. The neurobiological mechanisms associated with behavioral changes are still poorly understood. And that was the focus of our study”, says neuroscientist Manuella Kaster, professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and coordinator of the research alongside Daniel Martins-de-Souza, professor at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp).
According to Kaster, the group reviewed and reanalyzed a large amount of data available in the literature on molecular changes found in the brain and blood of individuals who committed suicide. “The use of tools such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics allowed the simultaneous and comparative evaluation of genes, proteins and metabolites present in samples. And we found that, in complex conditions such as suicide, these analyzes have great potential, as they can provide the basis for identifying susceptibility factors, in addition to potential therapeutic targets”, adds Martins-de-Souza.
