Transl Psychiat: the molecular mechanism of brain anxiety

December 22, 2019 / BIOON / -- nearly 40 million people in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders Although there are many treatment options, the success of treatment varies, and many people do not respond to treatment until weeks or months after they start taking antidepressants Other drugs, such as benzodiazepines, can quickly relieve symptoms, but may have side effects and risks, especially when taken for a long time, so better treatment is needed Recently, researchers at Brigham and women's hospital have developed a reasonable method for preclinical studies of anxiety using a new search method The team found more than 209 genes, whose activity varies with the type of anxiety disorder, and therefore may be a new target for drug development The results were published in translational psychology Ilana Braun, co-author of said: "in the past 50 years, there has been little progress in the treatment of transient anxiety, in part because preclinical models do not accurately reflect human anxiety Animal models tend to be biased, which limits our ability to study anxiety and its neurochemical properties " To improve research on anxiety disorders, Braun collaborated with Dr Aaron Goldman, an associate bioengineer at Brigham's Department of medical engineering "In cancer research, we use computational models, mathematical modeling and computational methods to combine them with gene expression RNA sequencing or protein analysis We realize that we can use these tools in the laboratory and apply them to anxiety disorders, so as to develop a more reasonable way to deal with anxiety disorders." Braun, Goldman and their colleagues first studied the genetic background and normal mice A series of behavioral tests were carried out in mice, from which the researchers selected the mouse strain with the greatest performance difference They then used computational models in combination with RNA sequencing to classify anxiety symptoms in mice, dividing them into low, medium, and high anxiety disorders After that, the team found a large degree of molecular variation in the amygdala of the three types of anxiety mice, with more than 209 genes having different activity levels These include gene changes related to synaptic plasticity (learning and memory) and gene changes related to the expression of hormones such as estradiol (the strongest form of estrogen) and prolactin (hormones related to pregnancy and breastfeeding) The team also found changes related to G-protein-coupled receptors, including those previously found to be related to angiogenesis but never anxiety Sources of information: molecular features of happiness in the brain: Aaron Goldman, Joshua L Smalley, meeta mistry, Harald krenzlin, Hong Zhang, Andrew dhawan, Barbara caldarone, Stephen J moss, David A silbersweig, Sean E Lawler, Ilana M Braun A computationally inspired in-vivo approach identifies a link between amygdalar transcriptional heterogeneity, socialization and anxiety Translational Psychiatry , 2019; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41398-019-0677-1