Epigenetic biomarkers in psychiatric disorders.
The discovery of biomarkers in psychiatric disorders may help in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of patients with these disorders. Here, I discuss the potential role of epigenetic biomarkers, that is, epigenetically altered genes and/or expression patterns of proteins or metabolites, in psychiatric disorders. Before epigenetic biomarkers can be clinically applied in these disorders, several issues need to be addressed. These include establishing a connection between biomarkers and the disease process; determining the predictive quality of the biomarkers; determining the effects of disease heterogeneity on the biomarkers; and identifying sample sources for the biomarkers that are easily accessible for testing.
Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. jpeedi@cmcvellore.ac.in
J
J
Peedicayil
D015415:Biomarkers; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000235:genetics*
D015415:Biomarkers