Blood test could help clinicians measure depression

A biomarker could enable a simple blood test that would help clinicians biologically assess depression severity in their patients, according to a new study from University of Illinois Chicago researchers.

The blood test also could help them determine if a treatment is working or should be changed, said lead researcher Mark Rasenick. 

“We can take blood from people, screen it and give a number to their depression that probably is more reliable than the rating scales that are currently used,” said Rasenick, distinguished professor of physiology and psychiatry at UIC and a research career scientist at the Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 

A new Molecular Psychiatry paper builds on a 2022 study that tested the biomarker in people with moderate to severe depression. Working with a new population, researchers confirmed their earlier results and found that the signal also could identify people with mild symptoms of depression. By contrast, in people previously diagnosed with depression but currently asymptomatic, the biomarker was at levels seen in healthy controls, Rasenick said.

Their test, which measures the activity of a cellular protein called Gs-alpha, could also differentiate between patients who were taking antidepressant medication and those who were not. That may give clinicians a new, early signal of whether medications — which can take several weeks to affect symptoms — are producing a therapeutic response. 

Rasenick and his colleagues are now testing how the biomarker responds to other depression therapies, including ketamine, psilocybin and transcranial magnetic stimulation. The group is also developing a laboratory assay that can test different drugs on patients’ blood cells to determine which therapy might be most effective, even before treatment begins. 

Rasenick worked with students from UIC Business and the UIC Office of Technology Management to create Pax Neuroscience, a company to pursue the research and approvals needed to develop the test for clinical use. 

Additional co-authors on the paper include Aksu Gunay, Dr. Alex Leow and Dr. Olusola Ajilore of UIC and Dr. Steven Targum of Pax Neuroscience. The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science.