Stress genes and their potential uses
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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Constant stress affects the performance of a number of genes, and this mechanism is virtually the same not only in humans but also in other organisms.
The development of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders caused by prolonged stress is studied both in humans and animals. Experiments on other living organisms help to trace the mechanisms of the pathological process at the cellular and molecular level.
Under conditions of chronic stress, rats and fish show more anxiety and less sociability. Gradually, their behavior increasingly resembles depression, as it does in humans. However, "human" and "animal" depression still have a number of differences.
Behavioral changes occur against the background of corresponding changes in gene activity. This can be measured by taking into account the amount of matrix RNA into which information from DNA is scribbled. The more RNA is scribbled from the gene, the greater the gene activity will be.
The scientists compared copies - sets of RNA - produced in the brain tissues of healthy rats and rodents that had been exposed to prolonged stress. Later, the experiment was repeated on zebra fish and, finally, on humans.
The evolutionary gap between humans, rats and fish is enormous. Therefore, comparisons of genes were made, taking into account all previously discovered kinship relationships. For example, a single ancestor of fish and humans had a gene that was subsequently changed many times along the corresponding line of living beings, resulting in modern fish and - along another line - primates.
Based on the results of the research, scientists were able to identify seven genes, conventionally called "stress genes". They have different functional orientation: they are responsible for energy metabolism in the body, control calcium metabolism, and are responsible for cellular interaction. In the future, the discovered genes can be used as a kind of drug targets in various neuropsychiatric diseases. Here we mean not only depressive state. Prolonged stress can provoke the development of excessive anxiety, manic and psychotic disorders, as well as other pathologies related to emotional failures. Specialists are confident: if drugs could be directed at the molecular basis of such disorders, the effectiveness of treatment would be much higher.
The study was the first of its kind, but it was carried out with some limitations, which may have affected its results, which became incomplete. At the moment, the research project is ongoing: the experts will report on its results later.
Read more about the study on the page of the journal Scientific Reports