Journal
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 426, Issue 20, Pages 3389-3412Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2014.03.016
Keywords
epigenetics; psychiatric disorders; depression; addiction
Categories
Funding
- NIDA NIH HHS [P01 DA008227, R37 DA007359] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [P50 MH096890] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Psychiatric disorders are complex multifactorial illnesses involving chronic alterations in neural circuit structure and function. While genetic factors are important in the etiology of disorders such as depression and addiction, relatively high rates of discordance among identical twins clearly indicate the importance of additional mechanisms. Environmental factors such as stress or prior drug exposure are known to play a role in the onset of these illnesses. Such exposure to environmental insults induces stable changes in gene expression, neural circuit function, and ultimately behavior, and these maladaptations appear distinct between developmental and adult exposures. Increasing evidence indicates that these sustained abnormalities are maintained by epigenetic modifications in specific brain regions. Indeed, transcriptional dysregulation and associated aberrant epigenetic regulation is a unifying theme in psychiatric disorders. Aspects of depression and addiction can be modeled in animals by inducing disease-like states through environmental manipulations (e.g., chronic stress, drug administration). Understanding how environmental factors recruit the epigenetic machinery in animal models reveals new insight into disease mechanisms in humans. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available