CANBERRA, July 15 (Xinhua) — Australian scientists have developed a genetic tool that can predict how well bipolar disorder (BD) patients will respond to lithium therapy.
Scientists believe these advances could soon enable genetic tests to quickly identify which BD patients will benefit from lithium, making treatment more efficient and helping guide new drug development, researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia said on Tuesday.
BD affects about 2.2 percent of Australians, marked by cycles of depression and mania. While lithium is the leading treatment, only one in three patients see optimal results, and many gain limited benefit, according to the university statement.
Clinicians have struggled to predict lithium’s effectiveness in BD due to the lack of reliable biomarkers to guide treatment, it said.
Researchers have developed pathway-specific polygenic scores that analyze genetic variations in biological pathways linked to lithium’s effects, which enables more accurate predictions of lithium treatment response.
“Tapping into this knowledge may offer new hope for developing personalized treatment strategies for patients receiving lithium,” said the study’s lead author, Associate Professor Azmeraw Amare from Adelaide Medical School, in collaboration with the International Consortium on Lithium Genetics.
Researchers found that people with BD who have specific genetic patterns, especially in brain signaling and circadian rhythm pathways, respond better to lithium, while those with certain mitochondrial genes respond less well.
The study, published in Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, an official journal of the United States Society of Biological Psychiatry, marks a major advance in precision psychiatry, researchers said. ■