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The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry
Aging can be described as the life-long accumulation of damage to the tissues, cells, and molecules of the body. One of the most widely used markers to study biological aging is telomere length. Telomeres are non-coding DNA structures located at the ends of chromosomes that become progressively shor...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9471733/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.195 |
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author | Verhoeven, J. Penninx, B. |
author_facet | Verhoeven, J. Penninx, B. |
author_sort | Verhoeven, J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Aging can be described as the life-long accumulation of damage to the tissues, cells, and molecules of the body. One of the most widely used markers to study biological aging is telomere length. Telomeres are non-coding DNA structures located at the ends of chromosomes that become progressively shorter with age. Research in the past decade showed that persons with psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder on average have shorter telomeres, which might help explain the high levels of somatic morbidity in these patients. While telomere length is an elegant aging biomarker, reflecting a biological process in most living species, there are also some challenges. In human studies, the between-person variation is large and shortened telomeres showed not to be specific to psychiatric diagnosis but rather to a multitude of psychological and physiological stressors. Telomere length might therefore not be a diagnostic marker. It could, nonetheless, be an interesting target for pharmacological, psychological or exercise treatment. If persons with psychiatric disorders age biologically faster, to what extend can this be process be halted or even reversed with successful treatment? Other opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry will be discussed in this session. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9471733 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Cambridge University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-94717332022-09-29 The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry Verhoeven, J. Penninx, B. Eur Psychiatry Abstract Aging can be described as the life-long accumulation of damage to the tissues, cells, and molecules of the body. One of the most widely used markers to study biological aging is telomere length. Telomeres are non-coding DNA structures located at the ends of chromosomes that become progressively shorter with age. Research in the past decade showed that persons with psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder on average have shorter telomeres, which might help explain the high levels of somatic morbidity in these patients. While telomere length is an elegant aging biomarker, reflecting a biological process in most living species, there are also some challenges. In human studies, the between-person variation is large and shortened telomeres showed not to be specific to psychiatric diagnosis but rather to a multitude of psychological and physiological stressors. Telomere length might therefore not be a diagnostic marker. It could, nonetheless, be an interesting target for pharmacological, psychological or exercise treatment. If persons with psychiatric disorders age biologically faster, to what extend can this be process be halted or even reversed with successful treatment? Other opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry will be discussed in this session. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships. Cambridge University Press 2021-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9471733/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.195 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Abstract Verhoeven, J. Penninx, B. The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title | The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title_full | The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title_fullStr | The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title_full_unstemmed | The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title_short | The opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
title_sort | opportunities and obstacles of studying telomere length as a biological aging marker in psychiatry |
topic | Abstract |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9471733/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.195 |
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