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Evaluation of the arachidonic acid pathway in bipolar disorder: a systematic review

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Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a mood psychiatric disorder described by changes between depressive, hypomanic, or manic episodes. The aimed of the present study was evaluated possible changes in the AA pathway in BD through a systematic review of observational studies. A search in the electronic databases was proceeded, on Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Google Scholar and the British Library for studies published until August 2020. A search strategy was developed using the terms: “Bipolar Disorder" and “Phospholipase A2” or “Arachidonic Acids” or “Cyclooxygenase 2” or “Prostaglandins E” as text words and Medical Subject Headings (i.e., MeSH and EMTREE). Seven primary studies were included in the systematic review, with a total of 246 BD patients, 20 depression patients, and 425 heathy controls (HC). The studies showed contradictory results in the AA and PLA2, no primary articles with COX and PGE2 assessments were included in this review. According to the Newcastle–Ottawa quality score scale (NOS), our systematic review presented high quality. The investigation of the inflammatory pathway of AA still needs further investigation and evidence, given the growing number of studies suggesting the efficacy of anti-inflammatory drugs as adjunctive therapy in the pharmacological treatment of BD.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the generous funding University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Translational Biomedicine Laboratory, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC), Criciúma, SC, Brazil

    Daniela V. Bavaresco, Maria Laura R. Uggioni, Carla S. Simon, Tamy Colonetti, Sarah D. Ferraz, Mateus V. B. Cruz & Maria Inês da Rosa

  2. Translational Psychiatry Laboratory, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC), Criciúma, SC, Brazil

    Samira S. Valvassori & João Quevedo

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, Translational Psychiatry Program, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, TX, USA

    João Quevedo

  4. Center of Excellence On Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, TX, USA

    João Quevedo

  5. Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA

    João Quevedo

Authors
  1. Daniela V. Bavaresco
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  2. Maria Laura R. Uggioni
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  4. Tamy Colonetti
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  5. Sarah D. Ferraz
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  6. Mateus V. B. Cruz
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  7. Samira S. Valvassori
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  8. João Quevedo
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  9. Maria Inês da Rosa
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Contributions

DVB, JQ, and MIR designed the study and wrote the protocol. DVB, MLRU, TC, and MIR managed the literature searches and screening. DVB, DVB, SDF, MVBC, and CSS contributed to analyses interpretation. MIR, TC and DVB wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed and have approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Inês da Rosa.

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The review protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42020158464).

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Bavaresco, D.V., Uggioni, M.L.R., Simon, C.S. et al. Evaluation of the arachidonic acid pathway in bipolar disorder: a systematic review. Mol Biol Rep 47, 8209–8217 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05785-w

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