Gene Expression Analysis in Postmortem Brains from Individuals Who Died by Suicide: A Systematic Review

Overview

Journal Brain Sci

Publisher MDPI

Date 2023 Jun 28

PMID 37371384

Authors

Thelma Beatriz Gonzalez-Castro

Alma Delia Genis-Mendoza

Maria Lilia Lopez-Narvaez

Isela Esther Juarez-Rojop

Miguel Angel Ramos-Mendez

Carlos Alfonso Tovilla-Zarate

Humberto Nicolini

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Around the world, more the 700,000 individuals die by suicide every year. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms associated with suicidal behavior. Recently, an increase in gene expression studies has been in development. Through a systematic review, we aimed to find a candidate gene in gene expression studies on postmortem brains of suicide completers. Databases were systematically searched for published studies. We performed an online search using PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases to search studies up until May 2023. The terms included were "gene expression", "expressed genes", "microarray", "qRT-PCR", "brain samples" and "suicide". Our systematic review included 59 studies covering the analysis of 1450 brain tissues from individuals who died by suicide. The majority of gene expression profiles were obtained of the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral prefrontal cortex and orbital frontal cortex area. The most studied mRNAs came of genes in glutamate, γ-amino-butyric acid and polyamine systems. mRNAs of genes in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB), HPA axis and chemokine family were also studied. On the other hand, psychiatric comorbidities indicate that suicide by violent death can alter the profile of mRNA expression.

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