Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor in bipolar and unipolar depression: A potential adjunctive tool for differential diagnosis

Applications of blood-based protein biomarker strategies in the study of psychiatric disorders

“…Due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (Karege et al, 2005b;Pan et al, 1998), it is expected that measurement of BDNF levels in the peripheral blood reflect abnormalities which occur in the brain. As Fernandes et al (2011b) describe in a recent meta-analysis, serum BDNF levels in bipolar disorder patients have been consistently reported as decreased during both manic (Cunha et al, 2006;Machado-Vieira et al, 2007a;de Oliveira et al, 2009;Palomino et al, 2007;Tramontina et al, 2009;Yoshimura et al, 2006) and depressive episodes (Cunha et al, 2006;de Oliveira et al, 2009;Yoshimura et al, 2006;Fernandes et al, 2009;Mackin et al, 2007). Furthermore, a positive correlation between BDNF levels and symptom severity (represented by the Young Mania Rating Scale) has been shown (Fernandes et al, 2011b).…”

Peripheral vascular endothelial growth factor as a novel depression biomarker: A meta-analysis

“…Herein we found an effect size of 0.34 for differences between subjects with MDD and healthy controls, which, although demonstrates a possible relevant role for VEGF in the pathophysiology of MDD, does not provide clear evidence for this mediator as a putative diagnostic biomarker for MDD. Furthermore, to properly investigate the role of VEGF as a diagnostic biomarker for MDD, future studies should enroll larger samples with mixed psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., bipolar depression), and then determine its accuracy as a diagnostic biomarker (Fernandes et al, 2009).…”

Serum concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients with gender identity disorder

“…Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a member of the growth factor family, involved in synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis, neuronal survival and normal maturation of neuronal developmental pathways (Fernandes et al, 2009;Gama et al, 2007;Grande et al, 2010) BDNF has a widely reported relation with corticosteroids that appear to play a key role in the environmentally mediated vulnerability to psychopathology (Grande et al, 2010). Besides, BDNF serum levels have been associated with traumatic life events and psychiatric disorders (Boulle et al, 2012;KauerSant'Anna et al, 2007).…”