A simple blood test to detect bipolar disorder?

In France, between 650,000 and 1.6 million people suffer from bipolar disorder. This psychiatric disease is characterized (among other things) by the alternation of depressive and manic phases: it is particularly supported with the help of mood regulating drugs.

Currently, people with bipolar have to wait about 7 years to be diagnosed. A colossal medical error as bipolar patients have (on average) a 10-year shortened life expectancy and a 20% increased risk of suicide.

Precisely: to speed things up a bit, the French company Alcediag has developed a blood test which would be able not only to diagnose bipolar disorder, but also to make the difference between this pathology and depression, with the which is often confused.

A test that could be available as early as 2023

“Thanks to advances in biology and artificial intelligence, we have shown that there are characteristic RNA modification changes in the brains of people with depression. We then identified specific biomarkers in their bloodexplained the co-founder of the company to our colleagues in Ouest France. When the brain malfunctions, it sends signals throughout the body, like a sick kidney or liver.“

The test, called Edit-B, was the subject of a scientific study in May 2022: it emerged that its specificity (i.e. its ability to exclude non-sick people) was 80%, and its sensitivity (i.e. its ability to detect sick) was 90%. Promising!

The Edit-B test is expected to be commercialized in early 2023 in Italy and Switzerland. A validation study will be launched shortly: it will involve 436 patients followed up in expert centers in Barcelona, ​​​​Copenhagen and Paris, and will last two years.

Source :Western France