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Choroid plexus inflammation in bipolar disorder.

Overview

Authors: Dario Figueroa Velez1, Reza Rahimian2, Christine Hehnly1, Jordan C Benson1, Isabella Sacharczyk1, Gustavo Turecki2, Naguib Mechawar2, Maria K Lehtinen1
  1. Department of Pathology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  2. Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Dept. of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada
Institutions: Boston Children's Hospital (United States); Harvard University (United States); Douglas Mental Health University Institute (Canada); McGill University (Canada)
Journal: Brain, behavior, and immunity, volume 136, article 106598
Dates: published online 12 April 2026; in print August 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY-NC
Identifiers: DOI 10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598 · PMID 41980683 · PMCID PMC13249507 · OpenAlex W7153896079
Open access: hybrid, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: human (organism), bipolar (population), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Methods: Statistics, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Connectivity, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: Bipolar disorder, Choroid plexus, Inflammation, Blood-CSF barrier, Cytokine
MeSH: Bipolar Disorder*, Choroid Plexus*, Inflammation*, Adult, Blood-Brain Barrier, Brain, Cytokines, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged (* major topic)
Topic: Tryptophan and brain disorders (Biological Psychiatry, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Douglas Foundation; Fonds de recherche du Québec; National Institutes of Health (F32 MH132178, T32 NS007473); NINDS NIH HHS (T32 NS007473, F32 NS136267, R01 NS129823); Fondation Brain Canada; Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (F32 NS136267); National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression; NICHD NIH HHS (P50 HD105351); Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (P50 HD105351); Tommy Fuss Fund; NIMH NIH HHS (F32 MH132178)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 86 references in the paper

Abstract

Inflammation has emerged as a prominent feature of bipolar disorder (BD) pathophysiology, drawing attention to brain barriers known to regulate immune-brain interactions. While perturbation of the blood–brain barrier has been reported in BD, the blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barrier formed largely by the choroid plexus (ChP) remains underexamined. To address this gap in knowledge, we used a multiplex array to measure cytokine protein abundance in postmortem ChP tissue from individuals with BD and unaffected controls, revealing elevated levels of CCL2 and SPP1, factors associated with monocyte and macrophage recruitment and activation. In contrast, expression of cytokines involved in tissue homeostasis, trophic support, and immune signaling, including OSM, IGF-1, CX3CL1, TGFB3, GDNF, LIF, BDNF, SCF, and FGFs, was reduced. Several cytokines, including CCL2 and PLGF, exhibited condition-specific divergent age trajectories. Bulk RNA sequencing of the same cohort revealed a modest set of differentially expressed genes, including transcripts associated with oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, and immune regulation that were upregulated in BD. Notably, the BD CSF biomarker NELL2 was downregulated in the ChP. Gene set enrichment analysis highlighted activation of inflammatory and cellular stress pathways, as well as reduced expression of junction-related gene programs. These findings suggest a shift in ChP function in BD characterized by increased pro-inflammatory signaling and reduced trophic and barrier-supportive activity. Together, these data identify the ChP as an active site of immune dysregulation in BD and support the broader notion of brain barrier dysfunction in mood disorder pathology.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

Sequencing data are available in GEO upon publication (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE328018, accession number GEO: GSE328018 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE328018)).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 8 authors, 5 keywords, 11 MeSH terms, 12 funders, 79 references.

Cite

This paper

Velez, D. F., Rahimian, R., Hehnly, C., Benson, J. C., Sacharczyk, I., Turecki, G., Mechawar, N., & Lehtinen, M. K. (2026). Choroid plexus inflammation in bipolar disorder. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 136, 106598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598

BibTeX

@article{velez2026choroid,
author = {Velez, Dario Figueroa and Rahimian, Reza and Hehnly, Christine and Benson, Jordan C and Sacharczyk, Isabella and Turecki, Gustavo and Mechawar, Naguib and Lehtinen, Maria K},
title = {{Choroid plexus inflammation in bipolar disorder}},
journal = {Brain, behavior, and immunity},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {136},
pages = {106598},
publisher = {Elsevier BV},
issn = {0889-1591},
doi = {10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598},
pmid = {41980683},
pmcid = {PMC13249507}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Velez, Dario Figueroa
AU - Rahimian, Reza
AU - Hehnly, Christine
AU - Benson, Jordan C
AU - Sacharczyk, Isabella
AU - Turecki, Gustavo
AU - Mechawar, Naguib
AU - Lehtinen, Maria K
TI - Choroid plexus inflammation in bipolar disorder
T2 - Brain, behavior, and immunity
J2 - Brain Behav Immun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/04/12
VL - 136
SP - 106598
SN - 0889-1591
PB - Elsevier BV
DO - 10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106598
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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