Researchers have identified a gene that plays a central role in amplifying or reducing stress, depending on its level of activity, an advance that may lead to targeted therapies to treat depression.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first to illuminate in detail how the gene, known as Slc6a15, works in a kind of neuron that plays a key role in depression. It found the link in both animals and humans.
“This study really shines a light on how levels of this gene in these neurons affects mood,” said Mary Kay Lobo, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US.
“It suggests that people with altered levels of this gene in certain brain regions may have a much higher risk for depression and other emotional disorders related to stress.”
Dr Lobo first noticed the gene during her PhD in 2006, and saw that it was more common among certain neurons in the brain’s ‘reward circuit’, which releases a rush of dopamine during sex, drinking alcohol, taking drugs or eating good food. The team found they could trigger depression in mice, or make them more resilient, simply by altering the levels of this gene’s expression in the brain.
