A large-scale study on uric acid-related biomarkers in patients with bipolar disorder

Recent research has provided strong evidence supporting the use of uric acid-related ratios as potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis. Notable ratios among these include uric acid-to-albumin ratio (UAR), uric acid-to-creatinine ratio (UCR), uric acid-to-high-density lipoprotein ratio (UHR), and uric acid-to-lymphocyte ratio (ULR). The aim of the study is to analyze these biomarkers in bipolar disorder (BD) patients.

5465 BD patients were enrolled in this study and 6629 healthy subjects served as controls. We compared differences of the above ratio indicators among different BD diagnostic groups and analyzed factors leading to the onset of BD.

BD-M (manic episodes of BD) group had higher ULR, UHR, UCR, UAR than HC (Heathy Controls) and BD-D (depressive episodes of BD) groups, while BD-D group showed lower ULR and UCR than HC group. P-BD-M (BD-M with psychotic symptoms) group displayed higher ULR, UHR, UCR, UAR than HC group, while even higher ULR, UHR, UAR than NP-BD-M (BD-M without psychotic symptoms) group. High UAR was risk factor in BD-M.

Our study suggests BD-M has more intense inflammatory response than BD-D. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of psychotic symptoms between BD-M and BD-D. Additionally, High UAR was risk factor in BD-M.