title: Novel routes to bipolar disorder drug discovery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe and chronic medical condition typified by episodic recurrent mania (or hypomania) in addition to major depression. BD is associated with a number of negative outcomes including premature death, reduced quality of life and can also lead to other complications including impaired cognitive function. Unfortunately, the currently available pharmacological treatments for BD are insufficient for many with the condition.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review focuses on known therapeutic targets of mood stabilizing drugs including: the glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), the phosphoinositide pathway and protein kinase C (PKC), the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and histone deacetylases (HDACs). This article also presents new promising therapeutic targets including: the glutamatergic pathway, mitochondrial modulators, neuropeptide-converting endopeptidases, the insulin transduction pathway, the purinergic system and the melatoninergic system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Challenges in improving methods and tools to generate, integrate and analyze high-dimensional data are required to allow opening novel routes to BD drug discovery. Through the application of systems biology approaches and the use of bioinformatical tools to integrate all omics data, it will be possible in the near future to gain deeper insights into pathophysiology of BD. This will in turn lead to the identification and exploitation of new potential therapeutic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpital Corentin-Celton, Service de psychiatrie, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hoertel
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Maricourt
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gorwood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs