"For the first time, we have provided insights into the causes of endogenous fluctuations in moods. Furthermore, the fact that drugs used to treat bipolar disorder improved the behavioral variability of the mutants indicates that these animals can be used as a valid model to identify new drug targets and to develop new methods of treatment," says Dr. Claude Brodsky of Ben Gurion University
Dr. Claude Brodsky from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and other researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich in Germany recently showed the embryonic origins of mood swings and the implications for bipolar disorder, in an article published in Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.
The effectiveness of the drugs currently used to treat bipolar disorder is unacceptably low, and in recent decades not a single new method has been introduced to treat this widespread and devastating disease. The lack of understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of mood swings, which are the hallmark of bipolar disorder, and the lack of appropriate live models, contribute significantly to this problem. From DNA analysis of thousands of healthy and sick subjects, Brodsky and his colleagues discovered that changes in the genetic pathways that regulate the development of the nerve cells in fetuses, which produce dopamine and serotonin, are associated with bipolar disorder. A mutant mouse line, which regulates these genetic pathways, showed fluctuations in various behaviors that include activity, anxiety, aggressiveness and sociability, as is recognized in bipolar disorder. Behavioral changes of the mutant improved through the use of drugs to treat bipolar disorder.
"For the first time, we have provided insights into the causes of endogenous fluctuations in moods. Furthermore, the fact that drugs used to treat bipolar disorder improved the behavioral variability of the mutants indicates that these animals can be used as a valid model to identify new drug targets and to develop new methods of treatment," says Brodsky.
Brodsky is the head of the Laboratory for Developmental and Behavioral Neurogenetics in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology. He is also a member of the Zalotovsky Center for Nerve Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The co-authors of the article "Abnormal development of monoamine neurons seen in mood swings and bipolar disorder". They are: Marin Jokic, Michal Bar, Gal Becker, Voxin M. Jovanvik and Ksenia Zega from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Tanya Karilo-Roa and Elizabeth B. Binder from the Max-Planck Institute. Carrillo-Roy is also a member of the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.
