The experimenters expanded their study to 15,000 people, using brain imaging techniques they were able to identify different levels of the gene SLC6A15 located in the hippocampus. They found that people, and rats, with low levels of SLC6A15 located in the hippocampus have major depression, or in the rats case, chronic social stress. I would like the eventual outcome to be a better way to treat depression by discovering a new class of anti-depressants that will make a change in many lives.
You can read the article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110427131816.htm
I feel as if Major Depressive disorder is one of the most misunderstood disorders because a lot of people feel as if depression is something that people can just "get over", but it's not. I'm hoping that with the results of this experiment, more people will realize that and also that these results will help those who have a genetic predisposition to depression.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to note that the journal article mentions that lower hippocampal volume was seen in the risk genotype carriers of the patient, but not the controls. And, reduced Hippocampal N-acetylaspartate (NAA) was also reported and it has been well-documented that predisposition to decreased NAA plays a role in psychiatric disorders, particularly less resilience to chronic stress, a risk factour in MD.
ReplyDeleteFull article can be found here: http://anpron.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Neuronal-Transporter-Gene-SLC6A15.pdf
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