Dysregulation of leukocyte gene expression in women with medication-refractory depression versus healthy non-depressed controls.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Depressive Disorders (DD) are a great financial and social burden. Females display 70% higher rate of depression than males and more than 30% of these patients do not respond to conventional medications. Thus medication-refractory female patients are a large, under-served, group where new biological targets for intervention are greatly needed.

Methods

We used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to evaluate mRNA gene expression from peripheral blood leukocytes for 27 genes, including immune, HPA-axis, ion channels, and growth and transcription factors. Our sample included 23 females with medication refractory DD: 13 with major depressive disorder (MDD), 10 with bipolar disorder (BPD). Our comparison group was 19 healthy, non-depressed female con

SUBMITTER: Iacob E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4015603 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature