The role of neurotrophins in bipolar disorder

• BDNF has the potential to be used as a biomarker in BD.
• GDNF reveals that different stages of BD alter the expression of this factor.
• IGF-1 and VEGF presented a strong correlation within the pathophysiology of BD.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic psychiatric illness of which the pathophysiology remains partially unknown. Abnormalities of neurotrophins and other trophic factors orchestrate important alterations which could be implicated in the etiology of BD. Therefore, the main objective of this review is to examine the recent findings and critically evaluate the potential role of neurotrophins that may allow us to substantially improve the development of novel treatments. The most recently published findings highlight that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) present distinct patterns in the different stages of BD, suggesting their potential in the identification of the BD subgroups and may ultimately advance treatment strategies.