Molecular Biomarkers in Mood Disorders

Dear Colleagues,

The implementation of molecular biomarkers for psychiatric illnesses still lags behind other biomedical disciplines, despite their widely recognized utility. This is particularly true for mood disorders, such as major depression and bipolar disorder, which are defined by multifactorial gene–environment etiopathogenesis, high heterogeneity, disability, vulnerability to mental/somatic comorbidities, at-risk behaviors, and relapses. While knowledge on the molecular neurobiology of mood disorders is progressing, revealing alterations in circadian and stress–response aspects and changes in neurotransmitter/neuropeptide metabolism and proinflammatory factors in patients, much remains to be clarified about the biochemical networks involved in the various disease stages.

The aim of this Special Issue is therefore to collect research articles, reviews, meta-analyses, and other works focusing on biomarker measurements in blood cells, plasma/serum, saliva, and urine from patients with mood disorders. Investigations of genetic and epigenetic patterns, exploration of coding and non-coding RNA transcripts, and determinations of molecular phenotypes for patient stratification will be considered, possibly following an integrated molecular biology and biochemistry perspective. Articles should report single or multiparametric analytical approaches, using targeted and/or untargeted technologies, also encompassing proteomics and metabolomics. Such an effort may effectively provide fertile platforms for achieving more personalized therapies with individual and societal impact.

Dr. Lionella Palego
Dr. Valerio Dell’Oste
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.