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From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression

The pervasive and frequently devastating nature of aggressive behavior calls for a collective effort to understand its psychosocial and neurobiological underpinnings. Regarding the latter, diverse brain areas, neural networks, neurotransmitters, hormones, and candidate genes have been associated wit...

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Autores principales: Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A., Dardiotis, Efthimios, Katsouni, Eleni, Chrousos, George P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7892552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33602896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01257-2
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author Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A.
Dardiotis, Efthimios
Katsouni, Eleni
Chrousos, George P.
author_facet Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A.
Dardiotis, Efthimios
Katsouni, Eleni
Chrousos, George P.
author_sort Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A.
collection PubMed
description The pervasive and frequently devastating nature of aggressive behavior calls for a collective effort to understand its psychosocial and neurobiological underpinnings. Regarding the latter, diverse brain areas, neural networks, neurotransmitters, hormones, and candidate genes have been associated with antisocial and aggressive behavior in humans and animals. This review focuses on the role of monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and the genes coding for them, in the modulation of aggression. During the past 20 years, a substantial number of studies using both pharmacological and genetic approaches have linked the MAO system with aggressive and impulsive behaviors in healthy and clinical populations, including the recent discovery of MAALIN, a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) regulating the MAO-A gene in the human brain. Here, we first provide an overview of the MAOs and their physiological functions, we then summarize recent key findings linking MAO-related enzymatic and gene activity and aggressive behavior, and, finally, we offer novel insights into the mechanisms underlying this association. Using the existing experimental evidence as a foundation, we discuss the translational implications of these findings in clinical practice and highlight what we believe are outstanding conceptual and methodological questions in the field. Ultimately, we propose that unraveling the specific role of MAO in aggression requires an integrated approach, where this question is pursued by combining psychological, radiological, and genetic/genomic assessments. The translational benefits of such an approach include the discovery of novel biomarkers of aggression and targeting the MAO system to modulate pathological aggression in clinical populations.
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spelling pubmed-78925522021-03-03 From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A. Dardiotis, Efthimios Katsouni, Eleni Chrousos, George P. Transl Psychiatry Review Article The pervasive and frequently devastating nature of aggressive behavior calls for a collective effort to understand its psychosocial and neurobiological underpinnings. Regarding the latter, diverse brain areas, neural networks, neurotransmitters, hormones, and candidate genes have been associated with antisocial and aggressive behavior in humans and animals. This review focuses on the role of monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and the genes coding for them, in the modulation of aggression. During the past 20 years, a substantial number of studies using both pharmacological and genetic approaches have linked the MAO system with aggressive and impulsive behaviors in healthy and clinical populations, including the recent discovery of MAALIN, a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) regulating the MAO-A gene in the human brain. Here, we first provide an overview of the MAOs and their physiological functions, we then summarize recent key findings linking MAO-related enzymatic and gene activity and aggressive behavior, and, finally, we offer novel insights into the mechanisms underlying this association. Using the existing experimental evidence as a foundation, we discuss the translational implications of these findings in clinical practice and highlight what we believe are outstanding conceptual and methodological questions in the field. Ultimately, we propose that unraveling the specific role of MAO in aggression requires an integrated approach, where this question is pursued by combining psychological, radiological, and genetic/genomic assessments. The translational benefits of such an approach include the discovery of novel biomarkers of aggression and targeting the MAO system to modulate pathological aggression in clinical populations. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7892552/ /pubmed/33602896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01257-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2021, corrected publication 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Review Article
Mentis, Alexios-Fotios A.
Dardiotis, Efthimios
Katsouni, Eleni
Chrousos, George P.
From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title_full From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title_fullStr From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title_full_unstemmed From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title_short From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression
title_sort from warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (maos) and aggression
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7892552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33602896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01257-2
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