InSook Ahn

1 Introduction The Global Burden of Disease 2019 showed that mental disorders affected 907.1 million people and accounted for 125.3 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), ranking it as the seventh highest contributor to the global disease burden.[1] Mood disorders, following anxiety disorders, affected 279.6 million people (28.8%), with a higher prevalence among women, and accounted for the highest proportion of DALYs (37.3%).

Abstract Metabolic alterations have been observed in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder (BD), a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by alternating episodes of mania and depression. However, the specific contributions of glial cells to these metabolic changes remain largely unknown. Here, we investigate the metabolic characteristics of induced astrocytes (iAstrocytes) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells of BD patients—classified by lithium responsiveness—and healthy controls.

Abstract Metabolic dysregulation of neurons is associated with diverse human brain disorders. Metabolic reprogramming occurs during neuronal differentiation, but it is not fully understood which molecules regulate metabolic changes at the early stages of neurogenesis. In this study, we report that miR-124 is a driver of metabolic change at the initiating stage of human neurogenesis.