HOME 
MPG   Logo Psychiatrie

 

Characterization of new candidate genes for stress-associated diseases

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in depressed patients yield novel candidate genes for depression, whose functional and molecular role may be largely unknown. In parallel new candidate genes arise from genome-wide DNA and expression analyses in animal models of stress-associated diseases, whose function and correlation with stress and depression haven't been investigated up to now. These new candidate genes can now be examined both functionally and with regard to their role in the regulation of the stress hormone system. In close collaboration with the RG Hausch we also test the efficacy of novel pharmacological compounds designed to specifically modulate the newly defined proteins of interest.

 

schmidt_m_03_01
Fig. 1: Example of an unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis of all genes present on a microarray. In this example, two hippocampal subregions are clearly distinguished, but also gene expression profiles of animals with a high or low vulnerability to chronic social stress. The green (lower expression) to red (higher expression) color scale indicates the normalized expression values of the probes (see Color Key).

 

Research group involved:

linkWebsiteRG Mathias Schmidt

linkWebsiteRG Elisabeth Binder

linkWebsiteRG Matthias Eder

linkWebsiteRG Felix Hausch

linkWebsiteRG Susanne Lucae

linkWebsiteRG Theo Rein

linkWebsiteRG Chris Turck

linkWebsitePaul Worley, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

linkWebsiteGeorge Uhl, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

 

Publications:

Kohli MA, Lucae S, Saemann PG, Schmidt MV, Demirkan A, Hek K, Roeske D, Alexander M, Salyakina D, Ripke S, Hoehn D, Specht M, Menke A, Hennings J, Heck A, Ising M, Schreiber S, Czisch M, Müller MB, Uhr M, Bettecken, Becker A, Schramm J, Rietschel M, Maier W, Bradley B, Ressler KJ, Nöthen, Cichon S, Hofman A, Tiemeier H, van Duijn CM, Holsboer F, Müller-Myhsok B, Binder EB; The neuronal transporter gene SLC6A15 confers risk to major depression; Neuron (2011) 70(2):252-65

 

Schmidt MV, Trümbach D, Weber P, Wagner K, Scharf SH, Liebl C, Datson N, Namendorf C, Gerlach T, Kühne C, Uhr M, Deussing JM, Wurst W, Binder EB, Holsboer F, Müller MB; Individual stress vulnerability is predicted by short-term memory and AMPA receptor subunit ratio in the hippocampus; The Journal of Neuroscience (2010), 30(50): 16949-58

 

Liebl C, Panhuysen M, Pütz B, Trümbach D, Wurst W, Deussing JM, Müller MB and Schmidt MV; Gene expression profiling following maternal deprivation: involvement of the brain renin-angiotensin system; Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience (2009), 2:1