Epigenetic Insight into the Suicidal Biomarker of Depression with Suicide Ideation: A Narrative Review

Suicide ideation (SI) is the major cause of death in persons with depression, whereas effective and accurate biomarkers for suicidal behavior of persons with depression are still lack. Recently, manifold studies in vivo revealed that epigenetic alterations including DNA methylation, non-coding RNA regulation, RNA editing and histone modification, were associated with depressive severity and SI, and peripheral epigenetic molecules may be potential biomarkers for suicidal risk of persons with depression. Therefore, we firstly reviewed recent epigenetic advancements in depression with suicide ideation (DSI) according to studies based on human tissue. Furthermore, we discussed the significance and potential of minimally-invasive peripheral epigenetic molecules to identify potential suicidal biomarkers for DSI, aiming to promote early identification and therapeutic evaluation of DSI.