Inflammatory cytokines during a manic episode in bd patients and its correlation with cognitive and affective symptoms at follow-up

INTRODUCTION: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a severe recurrent disorder with a complex biogenetic and psychosocial etiology. The immune system cytokines in interaction with the CNS play a role in the pathophysiology. OBJECTIVES: To compare inflammatory cytokines between BD patients and controls during the manic episode; additionally, compare these cytokines with psychiatric symptoms and cognitive performance during follow-up. METHODS: We recruited 25 BD patients in mania with paired controls. We measured baseline IL-2, IL-4, IL-8, IL-10, GM-CSG, TNF- α, and TNF- γ in plasma. We used U-Mann-Whitney for group comparison and Spearman correlation between sub-group follow-up assessments and cytokines. RESULTS: We found a significant difference in IL-6 between subjects and controls (figure 1). During the follow-up, we found a correlation with psychiatric symptoms, cognition, and cytokines during manic episodes (Table 1). Table 1. Follow-up Correlation with cytokines during a manic episode. [Table: see text] (+): positive correlation; (-): negative correlation. WMT: working-memory test, PST: Processing-speed test. [Figure: see text] CONCLUSIONS: IL-6 was significantly different in patients with BD during a manic episode regardless of the treatment they were taking. IL-10 at manic episode was negatively correlated to general psychiatric symptoms, IL-4 positive correlated to depressive symptoms, and cognitive performance was positively correlated to TNF- α and TNF- γ at follow-up. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.