Peripheral zinc and neopterin concentrations are associated with mood severity in bipolar disorder in a gender-specific manner

Caitlin E Millett; Dahlia Mukherjee; Aubrey Reider; Adem Can; Maureen Groer; Dietmar Fuchs; Teodor T Postolache; Shannon L Kelleher; Erika F H Saunders

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.05.022

Peripheral zinc and neopterin concentrations are associated with mood severity in bipolar disorder in a gender-specific manner

Psychiatry Res. 2017 Sep:255:52-58. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.05.022. Epub 2017 May 17.

Authors

Caitlin E Millett¹, Dahlia Mukherjee², Aubrey Reider², Adem Can³, Maureen Groer⁴, Dietmar Fuchs⁵, Teodor T Postolache⁶, Shannon L Kelleher⁷, Erika F H Saunders⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
³ University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ University of South Florida, School of Nursing, Tampa, FL, USA.
⁵ Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
⁶ University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Denver, CO, USA; The Military and Veteran Microbiome Consortium for Research and Education, MVM -Core, Denver, CO, USA.
⁷ Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; Department of Pharmacology, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; Department of Surgery, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry and Depression Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a recurrent, episodic mood disorder for which there are no current diagnostic, prognostic or theranostic biomarkers. Two peripheral markers of the acute phase immune response, zinc and neopterin, are consistently associated with severity of depression in literature. Given gender differences in clinical presentation of BD and in inflammatory processes, we aimed to explore the interaction between gender and immune biomarkers to predict mood severity in BD. Participants with DSM IV BD I and II were recruited through the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute during an acute mood episode. Healthy controls (HC) were recruited through advertisements. Participants fasted for at least 6h when blood was drawn for biomarkers. We found that zinc concentrations were significantly lower in the BD group at baseline (p<.05), and there was also a significant interaction between gender and zinc (p<.05), associated with depression severity. Also, we found a significant interaction between gender and neopterin, associated with mania severity (p<.05). We found that mania severity was associated with neopterin in men, while depression severity was positively associated with zinc in women. Our report bears replication in larger samples and highlights the potential for differences in the underlying pathophysiology between men and women with BD.

Keywords: Biological marker; Bipolar depression; Gender; Inflammation; Zinc.

MeSH terms

Adult
Affect / physiology
Biomarkers / blood
Bipolar Disorder / blood*
Bipolar Disorder / psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Neopterin / blood*
Severity of Illness Index*
Sex Factors*
Zinc / blood*

Substances

Biomarkers
Neopterin
Zinc

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding