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The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics

Exposure to trauma is one of the most important and prevalent risk factors for mental and physical ill-health. Excessive or prolonged stress exposure increases the risk of a wide variety of mental and physical symptoms. However, people differ strikingly in their susceptibility to develop signs and s...

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Autores principales: Al Jowf, Ghazi I., Snijders, Clara, Rutten, Bart P. F., de Nijs, Laurence, Eijssen, Lars M. T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8509551/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34639084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910743
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author Al Jowf, Ghazi I.
Snijders, Clara
Rutten, Bart P. F.
de Nijs, Laurence
Eijssen, Lars M. T.
author_facet Al Jowf, Ghazi I.
Snijders, Clara
Rutten, Bart P. F.
de Nijs, Laurence
Eijssen, Lars M. T.
author_sort Al Jowf, Ghazi I.
collection PubMed
description Exposure to trauma is one of the most important and prevalent risk factors for mental and physical ill-health. Excessive or prolonged stress exposure increases the risk of a wide variety of mental and physical symptoms. However, people differ strikingly in their susceptibility to develop signs and symptoms of mental illness after traumatic stress. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder affecting approximately 8% of the world’s population during their lifetime, and typically develops after exposure to a traumatic event. Despite that exposure to potentially traumatizing events occurs in a large proportion of the general population, about 80–90% of trauma-exposed individuals do not develop PTSD, suggesting an inter-individual difference in vulnerability to PTSD. While the biological mechanisms underlying this differential susceptibility are unknown, epigenetic changes have been proposed to underlie the relationship between exposure to traumatic stress and the susceptibility to develop PTSD. Epigenetic mechanisms refer to environmentally sensitive modifications to DNA and RNA molecules that regulate gene transcription without altering the genetic sequence itself. In this review, we provide an overview of various molecular biological, biochemical and physiological alterations in PTSD, focusing on changes at the genomic and epigenomic level. Finally, we will discuss how current knowledge may aid us in early detection and improved management of PTSD patients.
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spelling pubmed-85095512021-10-13 The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics Al Jowf, Ghazi I. Snijders, Clara Rutten, Bart P. F. de Nijs, Laurence Eijssen, Lars M. T. Int J Mol Sci Review Exposure to trauma is one of the most important and prevalent risk factors for mental and physical ill-health. Excessive or prolonged stress exposure increases the risk of a wide variety of mental and physical symptoms. However, people differ strikingly in their susceptibility to develop signs and symptoms of mental illness after traumatic stress. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder affecting approximately 8% of the world’s population during their lifetime, and typically develops after exposure to a traumatic event. Despite that exposure to potentially traumatizing events occurs in a large proportion of the general population, about 80–90% of trauma-exposed individuals do not develop PTSD, suggesting an inter-individual difference in vulnerability to PTSD. While the biological mechanisms underlying this differential susceptibility are unknown, epigenetic changes have been proposed to underlie the relationship between exposure to traumatic stress and the susceptibility to develop PTSD. Epigenetic mechanisms refer to environmentally sensitive modifications to DNA and RNA molecules that regulate gene transcription without altering the genetic sequence itself. In this review, we provide an overview of various molecular biological, biochemical and physiological alterations in PTSD, focusing on changes at the genomic and epigenomic level. Finally, we will discuss how current knowledge may aid us in early detection and improved management of PTSD patients. MDPI 2021-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8509551/ /pubmed/34639084 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910743 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Al Jowf, Ghazi I.
Snijders, Clara
Rutten, Bart P. F.
de Nijs, Laurence
Eijssen, Lars M. T.
The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title_full The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title_fullStr The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title_full_unstemmed The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title_short The Molecular Biology of Susceptibility to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Highlights of Epigenetics and Epigenomics
title_sort molecular biology of susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder: highlights of epigenetics and epigenomics
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8509551/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34639084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910743
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