Altered Rap1 endogenous phosphorylation and levels in platelets from patients with bipolar disorder

Previous studies have reported abnormalities either in the cAMP-dependent endogenous phosphorylation or in the levels of Rap1 in platelets from bipolar patients. One limitation of these findings was that they come from different groups of patients in independent studies. To overcome this limitation, we designed the present study in which both these biochemicals parameters were assessed in the same cohort of euthymic bipolar patients and healthy subjects. The results showed that the cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of Rap1 was significantly higher in platelets of bipolar patients with respect to healthy subjects. Furthermore, immunoblotting experiments revealed that also the levels of Rap1 were significantly higher in bipolar patients than in control subjects, thus supporting that the abnormal phosphorylation can be ascribed to the increased levels of Rap1. Taken together the results of the present study further support that downstream components of the cAMP signal cascade could be involved in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorders.