Transcriptomic Deconvolution of Dorsal Striata Reveals Increased Monocyte Fractions in Bipolar Disorder

Accumulating evidence suggests a relationship between the immune system, neuroinflammation, and mood disorders such as bipolar disorder (BD). However, the immunological landscape of critical brain structures implicated with BD, such as the dorsal striatum, has yet to be characterized. This study sought to investigate the immunological composition of dorsal striata in patients with BD.

CIBERSORTx, an established RNA deconvolution algorithm, was applied on RNA-sequencing data developed from dorsal striata of 18 BD patients and 17 controls. A validated gene signature matrix for 22 human hematopoietic cell subsets was used to infer the relative proportions of immune cells that were present in the original brain tissue.

Deconvolution of the bulk gene expression data showed that dorsal striata from BD subjects had a significantly greater relative abundance of monocytes compared to control samples.

Monocytes may play a role in the pathogenesis of BD in dorsal striata. Further studies are warranted to confirm the computational results presented herein.