Project Details
Projekt
Breathomics in depression: stress related changes of the exhaled breath during the early course of disease management
Subject Area
Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Biological Psychiatry
Biological Psychiatry
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496659652
About one third of patients with a depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to at least two different antidepressant therapies. These patients need other treatment options as early as possible. Unfortunately, there are currently no non-invasive, easily and frequently applicable biomarkers that could facilitate the diagnosis of a depressive episode in unipolar depressive disorder (MDD) or support the decision making process for therapy selection. Since the lung acts as a gas exchanger between the internal and external environment, the effects of MDD could easily be assessed by analyzing exhaled breath. Such methods are already successfully used in alcohol testing and in diabetes mellitus. In a pilot study of 25 patients with MDD and 25 healthy subjects, we were able to find markers that differ significantly between the groups and that give a good classification with an accuracy of over 80% in test and validation samples. The aim of the study is to identify signatures from exhaled breath air that distinguish a depressive episode in MDD and from the healthy state. In addition, it will be investigated by which factors (treatment, diet, and environment) these signatures are influenced, whether the identified signatures might be able to predict the course of the disease and whether they show parallels to the dysregulation of the cortisol response during awakening that has been shown in depression. A test sample of 80 patients with MDD according to DSM-V (40 of whom are currently free of antidepressant drug treatment and 40 with ongoing antidepressant treatment) and 80 healthy subjects will be included. Furthermore, in a validation sample we will recruit 40 patients with MDD (of which 20 are currently free of antidepressant drug treatment and 20 with ongoing antidepressant treatment) and 40 healthy subjects. Clinical examinations and breath measurements will be repeated after 14 and 28 days. Exhaled breath gas will be analyzed by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS). In addition, a determination of the substances behind is performed by GC-GC-TOF-MS. The environmental conditions and the collection method using "Tedlar" bags will be controlled. Thereby we want to develop a marker, which could support the diagnosis of depression, whereas this has to be shown in a clinical biomarker study afterwards.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
