Clinical Validation Study for EDIT-B Test: an Aid for Differential Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder, Based on RNA Editing Blood Biomarkers

Differentiation between major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) as soon as possible in the patient journey represents a major clinical issue. When the patient is in a depressive phase, the symptoms are similar between the two pathologies and the current clinical scales fail in distinguishing them. Physicians often report this difficulty and as a consequence, the mean time from onset to bipolar disorder diagnosis is currently 7.5 years. These diagnostic delays and misdiagnosis lead to damaging consequences for patients and their loved ones: worsening of symptoms, comorbidities, suicide risk and inadequate care resulting in severe impairment in social and occupational functioning. Faced with these high expectations for accurate diagnostic methods for an earlier management of psychiatric patients, the combination of relevant clinical features and biomarkers could stand for a solution, leading to a personalised approach in patients with mood disorders. In a first clinical discovery study, a panel of RNA biomarkers in the blood of patients with a major depressive episode (MDE) has been identified, allowing to differentiate bipolar disorder from MDD (unipolar depression). These biomarkers are based on RNA modifications, namely RNA editing, that could be identified using molecular biology, NGS and artificial intelligence. This panel constitutes EDIT-B test, which is based on Alcediag's proprietary and patented biomarkers and algorithms. The present study aims to validate the biomarker signatures proposed by Alcediag by measuring the association between the modifications of the RNA editing and major depressive disorder/ bipolar disorder diagnosis, in patients with a MDE in real-life setting pilot centres.