Kouter K, Šmon J, Videtič Paska A. Epigenetics and immunology: Under-recognized aspects of suicidality. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(9): 107726 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.107726]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Alja Videtič Paska, PhD, Full Professor, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov Trg 2, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. alja.videtic@mf.uni-lj.si
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2025; 15(9): 107726 Published online Sep 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.107726
Epigenetics and immunology: Under-recognized aspects of suicidality
Katarina Kouter, Julija Šmon, Alja Videtič Paska
Katarina Kouter, Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Julija Šmon, Alja Videtič Paska, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Author contributions: All authors organized and planned the manuscript; Šmon J wrote the Introduction, Epigenetic mechanisms in suicidality, Preventive strategies and therapeutic interventions; Kouter K wrote Suicidality and Immune system dysregulation; Videtič Paska A wrote Stress, Trauma, and the Immune system; Triggers and Mediators of epigenetic-immune dysregulation; All authors reviewed, edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency Program, No. P1-0390 and No. N3-0349; and Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency Program, Young Researcher Grant (to Šmon J).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alja Videtič Paska, PhD, Full Professor, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov Trg 2, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. alja.videtic@mf.uni-lj.si
Received: March 28, 2025 Revised: April 15, 2025 Accepted: June 18, 2025 Published online: September 19, 2025 Processing time: 151 Days and 15.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Suicidality is heterogeneous and cannot be fully accounted for by psychiatric comorbidities. To understand its biological background, it is important to consider epigenetic regulation as a mediator of suicide risk in response to environmental stimuli, particularly early life adversity. Chronic inflammation has been implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders, and further research should examine whether suicidality is associated with a specific inflammatory profile. The interactions between immune system dysregulation, stress response, and epigenetics hold promise for biomarker discovery but are insufficiently explored. To accelerate the development of targeted suicide prevention strategies, stringent sample selection and integrative multi-omics approaches should be applied.
