Serum-based proteomic profiles may be useful in identifying and differentiating mood disorders, according to a study published online Dec. 8, 2015 in Translational Psychiatry. While these findings need further validation, psychiatrists are hopeful that such research will help move psychiatric diagnoses away from exclusive reliance on clinical observation of behavioral symptoms and towards empirical use of biologically based test results. A consecutive sample of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of major (unipolar) depression (UP; n=52) or bipolar depression (BP-I, n=46; BP-II, n=49) and controls (n=141) were tested using a blood sample. Initial analysis was based upon a proteomic multiplex profile of 320 proteins utilizing Myriad RBM’s Discovery Multi-Analyte Profiling (MAP) platform. DiscoveryMAP is a quantitative multiplexed immunoassay service product, based on Luminex xMAP technology platform that was initially based upon immune mediator and cytokine quantification, increasingly recognized in the underlying neurobiology of mood disorders. Rigorous exclusion criteria were used to eliminate participants with non-specific inflammatory contributions from systemic illness and anti-inflammatory/biotic drug therapy. The researchers found that six of the 320 proteins analyzed—growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15), hemopexin (HPX), hepsin (HPN), matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7), retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP-4) and transthyretin (TTR)—showed statistically significant differences between the patients and the healthy […]