Plasma and Serum LC-MS Lipidomic Fingerprints of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SCH) are results of the complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors, and the underlying pathophysiology is not yet completely understood. The current diagnostic criteria for psychiatric diagnosis are based purely on clinical phenomenology and they are limited to psychiatrist judgment after a standardized clinical interview, with no precise biomarkers used to discriminate between the disorders. Besides gaps in the understanding and diagnosis of these diseases, there is also a need for personalized and precise approaches to patients through customized medical treatment and reliable monitoring of treatment response. To fulfill existing gaps, the establishment of disorder biomarker sets is a necessary step. LC-MS lipidomic blood sample analysis is one of the ongoing omics approaches. In the last ten years, several studies have identified alterations in lipid metabolism associated with BD and SCH, and this review summarizes current knowledge on their lipidomic patterns, which is essential for identifying lipid biomarkers. Currently, findings indicate decreases in plasmalogens and acyl-carnitines, along with increases in certain triacylglycerol species, shared by both conditions. In contrast, serum LC-MS lipidomic profiles of sphingolipids including ceramides could be unique to BD, indicating the need for further investigation in future studies.