Lithium-responsive genes and gene networks in bipolar disorder patient-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines.

Lithium (Li) is the mainstay mood stabilizer for the treatment of bipolar disorder (BD), although its mode of action is not yet fully understood nor is it effective in every patient. We sought to elucidate the mechanism of action of Li and to identify surrogate outcome markers that can be used to better understand its therapeutic effects in BD patients classified as good (responders) and poor responders (nonresponders) to Li treatment. To accomplish these goals, RNA-sequencing gene expression profiles of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) were compared between BD Li responders and nonresponders with healthy controls before and after treatment. Several Li-responsive gene coexpression networks were discovered indicating widespread effects of Li on diverse cellular signaling systems including apoptosis and defense response pathways, protein processing and response to endoplasmic reticulum stress. Individual gene markers were also identified, differing in response to Li between BD responders and nonresponders, involved in processes of cell cycle and nucleotide excision repair that may explain part of the heterogeneity in clinical response to treatment. Results further indicated a Li gene expression signature similar to that observed with clonidine treatment, an α2-adrenoceptor agonist. These findings provide a detailed mechanism of Li in LCLs and highlight putative surrogate outcome markers that may permit for advanced treatment decisions to be made and for facilitating recovery in BD patients.

Functional genetic variation in the Rev-Erbα pathway and lithium response in the treatment of bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is characterized by disruptions in circadian rhythms such as sleep and daily activity that often normalize after lithium treatment in responsive patients. As lithium is known to interact with the circadian clock, we hypothesized that variation in circadian 'clock genes' would be associated with lithium response in BD. We determined genotype for 16 variants in seven circadian clock genes and conducted a candidate gene association study of these in 282 Caucasian patients with BD who were previously treated with lithium. We found that a variant in the promoter of NR1D1 encoding Rev-Erbα (rs2071427) and a second variant in CRY1 (rs8192440) were nominally associated with good treatment response. Previous studies have shown that lithium regulates Rev-Erbα protein stability by inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase 3ß (GSK3ß). We found that GSK3ß genotype was also suggestive of a lithium response association, but not statistically significant. However, when GSK3ß and NR1D1 genotypes were considered together, they predicted lithium response robustly and additively in proportion to the number of response-associated alleles. Using lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with BD, we found that both the NR1D1 and GSK3ß variants are associated with functional differences in gene expression. Our findings support a role for Rev-Erbα in the therapeutic mechanism of lithium and suggest that the interaction between Rev-Erbα and GSK3ß may warrant further study.

Linkage of a bipolar disorder susceptibility locus to human chromosome 13q32 in a new pedigree series.

Bipolar (BP) disorder or manic depressive illness is a major psychiatric disorder for which numerous family, twin and adoption studies support a substantial genetic contribution. Recently, we reported the results of a genome-wide search for BP disorder susceptibility loci in 20 pedigrees. Suggestive evidence for linkage was found in this study at three markers on 13q, representing possibly two peaks separated by 18 cM. We have now collected a second set of 32 pedigrees segregating BP disorder and have tested for evidence of linkage to markers on human chromosome 13q. In this sample, we have replicated the linkage result in 13q32 at D13S154 (lod=2.29), the more proximal of the two original peaks. When all 52 pedigrees were combined, the multipoint maximum lod score peaked approximately 7 cM proximal to D13S154 (lod=3.40), with a second peak occurring between D13S225 and D13S796 (lod=2.58). There have been several other reports of significant linkage to both BP disorder and schizophrenia in this region of chromosome 13. These pedigrees provide additional evidence for at least one locus for BP disorder in 13q32, and are consistent with other reports of a possible genetic overlap between these disorders.