Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Feb 7:14:1115924.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1115924. eCollection 2023.

Genomic regulatory sequences in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder

Anastasia Levchenko  1 , Maria Plotnikova  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Genomic regulatory sequences in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder

Anastasia Levchenko et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

The lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorder is estimated to be about 2%. Epigenetics defines regulatory mechanisms that determine relatively stable patterns of gene expression by controlling all key steps, from DNA to messenger RNA to protein. This Mini Review highlights recent discoveries of modified epigenetic control resulting from genetic variants associated with bipolar disorder in genome-wide association studies. The revealed epigenetic abnormalities implicate gene transcription and post-transcriptional regulation. In the light of these discoveries, the Mini Review focuses on the genes PACS1, MCHR1, DCLK3, HAPLN4, LMAN2L, TMEM258, GNL3, LRRC57, CACNA1C, CACNA1D, and NOVA2 and their potential biological role in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder. Molecular mechanisms under control of these genes do not translate into a unified picture and substantially more research is needed to fill the gaps in knowledge and to solve current limitations in prognosis and treatment of bipolar disorder. In conclusion, the genetic and functional studies confirm the complex nature of bipolar disorder and indicate future research directions to explore possible targeted treatment options, eventually working toward a personalized approach.

Keywords: RNA; bipolar disorder; epigenetics; functional genetic variant; genome-wide association study (GWAS); transcription.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. McIntyre R, Berk M, Brietzke E, Goldstein B, Lopez-Jaramillo C, Kessing L, et al. Bipolar Disorders. Lancet. (2020) 396:1841–56. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31544-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schiele M, Gottschalk M, Domschke K. The applied implications of epigenetics in anxiety, affective and stress-related disorders - a review and synthesis on psychosocial stress, psychotherapy and prevention. Clin Psychol Rev. (2020) 77:101830. 10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101830 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Richetto J, Meyer U. Epigenetic modifications in schizophrenia and related disorders: molecular scars of environmental exposures and source of phenotypic variability. Biol Psychiatry. (2021) 89:215–26. 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.03.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ludwig B, Dwivedi Y. Dissecting bipolar disorder complexity through epigenomic approach. Mol Psychiatry. (2016) 21:1490–8. 10.1038/mp.2016.123 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Powell S, O’Shea C, Brennand K, Akbarian S. Parsing the functional impact of noncoding genetic variants in the brain epigenome. Biol Psychiatry. (2021) 89:65–75. 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.06.033 - DOI - PMC - PubMed