Identification of Biomarkers for Stress Vulnerability and Resilience
Abstract
Predicting how individuals might respond either to a major trauma or to a severe and sustained period of stress is important in recognizing and preventing the consequences of severe stressors. These adverse consequences include disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other mood and anxiety disorders. The goal of our research is to develop a strategy for improving our ability to predict stress vulnerability or stress resilience. We plan to test a combination of genetic markers, and neuroendocrine and affective responses to a stress challenge. Importantly, we propose to ascertain how well this combination of measures predicts responsiveness to highly stressful “real life” events. The approach will combine measures of personality traits, genotyping of specific candidate genes (growth factors, immune factors, circadian genes and stress genes) and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The validation will involve follow-up in a naturalistic setting that is expected to trigger sustained stress in our subjects. Our working hypothesis is that triangulating these variables will provide predictive power of stress reactivity, be it enhanced vulnerability or resilience. The two human populations we plan to study include medical interns and college freshmen. These human studies will be coupled to studies in our genetic rat lines that model differences in temperamental tendencies, with one line being akin to humans prone to “internalizing disorders” and the other to humans prone to “externalizing disorders”. The animal studies will be used to a) validate the data generated in humans; b) identify novel gene targets; and c) lay the groundwork for additional types of analysis, including epigenetic modifications that may predispose to certain types of stress reactivity or may result from the responses to stress in different individuals. It is hoped that this combination of the human and animal studies will lead to a strategy for predicting vulnerability or resilience to sustained life stress in a population of young, healthy individuals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512224
Entities
People
- Huda Akil
Organizations
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy