Label-free, live optical imaging of reprogrammed bipolar disorder patient-derived cells reveals a functional correlate of lithium responsiveness.

Transl Psychiatry
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Development of novel treatments and diagnostic tools for psychiatric illness has been hindered by the absence of cellular models of disease. With the advent of cellular reprogramming, it may be possible to recapitulate the disease biology of psychiatric disorders using patient skin cells transdifferentiated to neurons. However, efficiently identifying and characterizing relevant neuronal phenotypes in the absence of well-defined pathophysiology remains a challenge. In this study, we collected fibroblast samples from patients with bipolar 1 disorder, characterized by their lithium response (n=12), and healthy control subjects (n=6). We identified a cellular phenotype in reprogrammed neurons using a label-free imaging assay based on a nanostructured photonic crystal biosensor and found that an optical measure of cell adhesion was associated with clinical response to lithium treatment. This cellular phenotype may represent a useful biomarker to evaluate drug response and screen for novel therapeutics.

Year of Publication
2014
Journal
Transl Psychiatry
Volume
4
Pages
e428
Date Published
2014 Aug 26
ISSN
2158-3188
URL
DOI
10.1038/tp.2014.72
PubMed ID
25158003
PubMed Central ID
PMC4150245
Links
Grant list
R33 MH087896 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R33MH087896 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R21 MH093958 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R21MH093958 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States