Section of Perinatal Psychiatry & Stress, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 125 Coldharbour Lane, London, SE5 9NU, UK.
BMC Med. 2013 Feb 5;11:28. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-28.
Alterations in several biological systems, including the neuroendocrine and immune systems, have been consistently demonstrated in patients with major depressive disorder. These alterations have been predominantly studied using easily accessible systems such as blood and saliva. In recent years there has been an increasing body of evidence supporting the use of peripheral blood gene expression to investigate the pathogenesis of depression, and to identify relevant biomarkers. In this paper we review the current literature on gene expression alterations in depression, focusing in particular on three important and interlinked biological domains: inflammation, glucocorticoid receptor functionality and neuroplasticity. We also briefly review the few existing transcriptomics studies. Our review summarizes data showing that patients with major depressive disorder exhibit an altered pattern of expression in several genes belonging to these three biological domains when compared with healthy controls. In particular, we show evidence for a pattern of 'state-related' gene expression changes that are normalized either by remission or by antidepressant treatment. Taken together, these findings highlight the use of peripheral blood gene expression as a clinically relevant biomarker approach.
在患有重度抑郁症的患者中，已经一致证明了几种生物系统（包括神经内分泌和免疫系统）的改变。这些改变主要使用易于获取的系统（如血液和唾液）进行研究。近年来，越来越多的证据支持使用外周血基因表达来研究抑郁症的发病机制，并确定相关的生物标志物。在本文中，我们综述了有关抑郁症基因表达改变的现有文献，特别关注三个重要且相互关联的生物学领域：炎症、糖皮质激素受体功能和神经可塑性。我们还简要回顾了少数现有的转录组学研究。我们的综述总结了数据，表明与健康对照组相比，患有重度抑郁症的患者在这三个生物学领域的几个基因中表现出改变的表达模式。特别是，我们证明了存在一种“与状态相关”的基因表达变化模式，这种模式可以通过缓解或抗抑郁治疗来正常化。综上所述，这些发现强调了使用外周血基因表达作为一种有临床意义的生物标志物方法。
