Transl Psy：血液试验判定青少年抑郁症

近日，西北大学Feinberg医学院研究人员开发出一种血液试验，测量一组遗传标记可以诊断青少年是否抑郁症，相关技术成果发表在Translational Psychiatry杂志上。目前，抑郁症的诊断依赖于患者症状的描述，卫生保健专业人士一直试图解释这些症状。

作者表示：青少年抑郁症的诊断是特别具有挑战性的，部分原因是因为青春期情绪往往波动，在这个年龄段及时、准确地诊断是否患抑郁是很重要的。

在青春期前的孩子中，儿童患严重抑郁症患病率从2％至4％不等，后期青少年10％至20％人患抑郁。抑郁症青少年得不到治疗，有较高的药物滥用、自杀和社会失调的风险，他们的抑郁疾病也更可能持续到成年时期。

俄亥俄州哥伦布市的全国儿童医院研究所Kathleen Paier MD研究包括28名青少年、14名有严重抑郁症单并没有得到临床治疗以及14名健康青少年。他们年龄在15至19岁之间。

抽取参试者血液样本，研究人员鉴定了26个遗传性血液标记发现，11个标记可以判断非抑郁的青少年。此外，26个指标中的18个可以识别哪些人患有重性抑郁症，哪些人患有焦虑症并发抑郁症。

doi:10.1038/tp.2012.26
Discovery of blood transcriptomic markers for depression in animal models and pilot validation in subjects with early-onset major depression

K Pajer, B M Andrus, W Gardner, A Lourie, B Strange, J Campo, J Bridge, K Blizinsky, K Dennis, P Vedell, G A Churchill and E E Redei

Early-onset major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious and prevalent psychiatric illness in adolescents and young adults. Current treatments are not optimally effective. Biological markers of early-onset MDD could increase diagnostic specificity, but no such biomarker exists. Our innovative approach to biomarker discovery for early-onset MDD combined results from genome-wide transcriptomic profiles in the blood of two animal models of depression, representing the genetic and the environmental, stress-related, etiology of MDD. We carried out unbiased analyses of this combined set of 26 candidate blood transcriptomic markers in a sample of 15–19-year-old subjects with MDD (N=14) and subjects with no disorder (ND, N=14). A panel of 11 blood markers differentiated participants with early-onset MDD from the ND group. Additionally, a separate but partially overlapping panel of 18 transcripts distinguished subjects with MDD with or without comorbid anxiety. Four transcripts, discovered from the chronic stress animal model, correlated with maltreatment scores in youths. These pilot data suggest that our approach can lead to clinically valid diagnostic panels of blood transcripts for early-onset MDD, which could reduce diagnostic heterogeneity in this population and has the potential to advance individualized treatment strategies.