The BIPCOVID Study: Investigating Shared Genetic Pathways Between COVID-19 Susceptibility and Psychiatric Symptoms in Bipolar Disorder

During the COVID-19 pandemic, new mental-health challenges arose globally, while exacerbating already existing ones greatly. The increase in psychological stress symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, psychosomatic issues and sleep disorders is not surprising considering the severity of the situation and threat. Research regarding the increase in psychiatric symptoms is greatly available. However, there is still a lack regarding prevention strategies for COVID-19 associated psychiatric symptoms and the molecular underpinnings, to identify at risk individuals. In the BIPCOVID study, we recruited individuals with bipolar disorder and healthy controls to examine the link between psychiatric conditions during the pandemic and PRS (polygenic risk scores), which include various gene variants related to COVID-19 infection risk, to identify genetic predictors or markers of psychiatric symptoms. As bipolar disorder is also associated with chronic inflammation, there might be shared genetic pathways between infection predisposition for COVID-19 and bipolar disorder. The genetic underpinning of affective symptoms in the pandemic will be analyzed with PRS analyses (1. COVID-19 PRS and 2. Bipolar disorder PRS). Isolation of DNA from the local BIPCOVID sample was done with the use of the QIAsymphony robot and genotyping is currently being worked at with the Infinium Global Screening Array GSA at the life & brain Bonn. PRS calculation will be done with R and PRSice after using PLINK and other programs for quality control, as these methods have been demonstrated to be reliable and cost effective techniques widely used and accepted in genetic research. Preliminary results are expected in the following months.

Publication History

Article published online:
30 April 2025