ArticleTranslational psychiatry2017
The serum protein levels of the tPA-BDNF pathway are implicated in depression and antidepressant treatment.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 144 citations in OpenAlex.
- BDNF and GDNF in Parkinson's Disease: Associations with Clinical Features, Disease Course, and Progression-A Systematic Review.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Pooled it
- Global research hotspots and trends of acupuncture regulating neuroplasticity: a bibliometric analysis from 2005 to 2024.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Comparing the effect of fluoxetine, escitalopram, and sertraline, on the level of BDNF and depression in preclinical and clinical studies: a systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Association of peripheral manifestation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor with depression: A meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- MicroRNAs expressed in depression and their associated pathways: A systematic review and a bioinformatics analysis.Journal of chemical neuroanatomy · 2019Pooled it
- An increase in plasma brain derived neurotrophic factor levels is related to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid efficacy in first episode schizophrenia: secondary outcome analysis of the OFFER randomized clinical trial.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Patho- physiological role of BDNF in fibrin clotting.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Stress-induced plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) as a blood biomarker and brain risk factor for PTSD.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Efficacy and safety of estradiol/dydrogesterone combined with escitalopram in the treatment of anxiety and depression in perimenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Association of exercise type and levels with depressive symptoms in a Korean population.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- The Plasminogen Activation System in the Central Nervous System: Implications for Epilepsy and Neuropsychiatric Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- A comparison of commercial assays quantifying mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (mBDNF) and its precursor (pro-BDNF) in human serum.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Fecal metabolites as early-phase biomarkers and prediction panel for ischemic stroke.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Novel Roles for Urokinase- and Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activators in the Pathogenesis of Mood Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The Effects of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise on Muscle-Brain Crosstalk: A Systematic Review.Muscles (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Landscapes of gut microbiome and blood metabolomic signatures in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.Science China. Life sciences · 2025Article
- New Wine in an Old Bottle: tPA for Ischemic Stroke Management.Translational stroke research · 2025Article
- The Clinical Utility of Biomarkers in Diagnosing Major Depressive Disorder in Adults: A Systematic Review of Literature From 2013 to 2023.Psychiatry investigation · 2025Article
- Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evidence demonstrates that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). Precursor-BDNF (proBDNF) and mature BDNF (mBDNF) have opposing biological effects in neuroplasticity, and the tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA)/plasmin system is crucial in the cleavage processing of proBDNF to mBDNF. However, very little is known about the role of the tPA-BDNF pathway in MDD. We examined serum protein concentrations in the tPA-BDNF pathway, including tPA, BDNF, tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), proBDNF and p75NTR, obtained from 35 drug-free depressed patients before and after 8 weeks of escitalopram (mean 12.5 mg per day) or duloxetine (mean 64 mg per day) treatment and 35 healthy controls using sandwich ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) methods. Serum tPA and BDNF and the ratio of BDNF/proBDNF were significantly lower in the MDD patients than in controls, whereas TrkB, proBDNF and its receptor p75NTR were higher. After 8 weeks of treatment, tPA, BDNF and proBDNF and the BDNF/proBDNF ratio were reversed, but p75NTR was higher than baseline, and TrkB was not significantly changed. tPA, BDNF, TrkB, proBDNF and p75NTR all yielded fairly good or excellent diagnostic performance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) >0.8 or 0.9). Combination of these five proteins demonstrated much better diagnostic effectiveness (AUC: 0.977) and adequate sensitivity and specificity of 88.1% and 92.7%, respectively. Our results suggest that the tPA-BDNF lysis pathway may be implicated in the pathogenesis of MDD and the mechanisms underlying antidepressant therapeutic action. The combination of tPA, BDNF, TrkB, proBDNF and p75NTR may provide a diagnostic biomarker panel for MDD.
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