Research out of Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore could pave the way for a blood test for disease-associated changes in the brain, such as psychiatric and neurological disorders.
The research focuses on identifying the "footprints" brain-cell-derived mRNAs in blood outside the brain leave, which contain brain-specific pieces of genetic material that researchers could use to identify disease-associated changes in the brain, according to a Feb. 7 news release.
The Johns Hopkins team published their latest findings Jan. 11 in Molecular Psychiatry. The study was inspired in part by another study out of Johns Hopkins that was published in September 2022, which found that communication among extracellular vesicles like the ones in this recent study is altered in pregnant women who went on to develop postpartum depression post delivery.