Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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FKBP5

Striking graph showing gene-stress interactions in PTSD

This graph, from a recent paper in Nature Neuroscience, describes how variations in the gene FKBP5 make individuals more susceptible to physical and sexual abuse, and thus more likely to develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).nn.3275-F1

The paper is the result of a collaboration between Elisabeth Binder and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, and Emory psychiatrists Kerry Ressler and Bekh Bradley. The population under study is made up of inner-city Atlanta residents, part of the Grady Trauma Project overseen by Ressler and Bradley. This paper analyzes samples from a group of individuals that is more than twice as large as the original 2008 paper defining the effect of FKBP5, and adds mechanistic understanding: how regulation of the FKBP5 gene is perturbed.

Back to the graph — in addition to the effects of the different forms of the gene, it is striking how high the rate of PTSD is for both individuals with the protective and risk forms of FKBP5. Also, for individuals who did not experience abuse, the PTSD rate is actually higher for the “protective” form of the gene. On this point, the authors write:

It is, however, possible that the described polymorphisms Gafas Ray Ban outlet define not only risk versus resilience, but possibly environmentally reactive versus less reactive individuals. This would imply that the so-called risk-allele carriers may also profit more from positive environmental change.

The FKBP5 gene encodes a protein that regulates responses to the stress hormone cortisol. Thus, it acts in blood and immune system cells, not only the brain, and is involved in terminating the stress response after the end of a threat. In the paper’s discussion, the authors propose that FKBP5 may have a role in sensitivity to other immune and metabolic diseases, in addition to PTSD and depression.

Max Planck press release on Binder paper

Recent post on Shannon Gourley’s related work (how stress hormone exposure leads to depression)

 

 

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Quinn Eastman in Neuro Leave a comment