Project: Identifying Markers of AntiDepressant response: Advancing Precision Treatment of depression

Acronym	IMADAPT (Reference Number: ERAPERMED2018-018)
Duration	01/03/2019 - 28/02/2022
Project Topic	Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent in the general population and is associated with grave consequences, including excessive mortality, disability and secondary morbidity. Antidepressants are the most common treatment for MDD and are among the most prescribed medications. While they have demonstrated effectiveness, on average, 30-40% of patients do not achieve response even following multiple adequate trials over several months. In contrast to drug treatment for other medical disorders, and despite a clear biological basis to MDD, personalized treatment planning is not currently possible due to a lack of objective biological predictors of antidepressant response. The primary goal of this proposal is to develop a clinically useful biomarker panel to increase the precision of MDD treatment. We will expand on our previous work on identifying biological markers and will combine this information with clinical markers defined by an AI-based investigation of clinical trial data. Through machine learning, we will identify clinical predictors from a large sample of antidepressant clinical trial data (N~20,000). We will study molecular markers in a large representative sample of MDD patients treated with first-line antidepressants, obtained from academic trials (N=750). Using next-generation sequencing, we will compare baseline and post-treatment samples and identify changes in micro RNAs of neural-derived exosomes associated with antidepressant response. Significant findings will be further characterized in cell and mouse models. The most significant results will contribute to the development of a panel of biomarkers to predict antidepressant response, which will be tested in an independent replication sample (N=1,350) to help assess the external validity of our findings. This multidisciplinary approach to investigating both clinical and biological markers will further advance biomarker research in MDD for more personalized approach to treatment.
Network	ERA PerMed
Call	1st Joint Transnational Call for Proposals (2018)

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	McGill University	Coordinator	Canada
2	Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry	Partner	Germany
3	Bar-Ilan University	Partner	Israel
4	Maastricht University	Partner	Netherlands