Published online Aug 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i8.524
Peer-review started: May 17, 2023
First decision: July 4, 2023
Revised: July 5, 2023
Accepted: July 27, 2023
Article in press: July 27, 2023
Published online: August 19, 2023
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are currently considered the first-line treatment for panic disorder (PD). However, not all patients benefit from the antidepressant therapy.
No genome-wide methylation studies or mRNA sequencing have been conducted to identify early response biomarkers in patients with PD.
To compare genome-wide methylation and gene expression patterns between responsive and non-responsive patients with PD after 4 wk of escitalopram treatment.
Thirty patients with PD were enrolled in this study (responders = 13; non-responders = 17). All patients were assessed using the PD Severity Scale-Chinese version before and after treatment. The Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC (850k) BeadChip for genome-wide methylation screening and mRNA sequencing was used in all patients with PD.
A total of 701 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) were found between responders and non-responders (|Δβ| ≥ 0.06, q < 0.05), and the hyper- and hypomethylated CpG sites were 511 (72.9%) and 190 (27.1%), respectively. Relative to non-responders, there were 59 differential transcripts, of which 20 were downregulated and 39 were upregulated (q < 0.05).
This preliminary study showed that DMPs might be associated with the treatment response to escitalopram in PD, however, these DMPs need to be verified in large samples.
DNA methylation contributing to antidepressant response will be a unique and promising opportunity to implement personalized medicine in PD treatment.