The discovery of an ‘anxiety gene’ in the mouse brain and natural ways to turn it off could lead to new treatments for anxiety disorders. very common types of mental illness in the world.
Challenge: Everyone can experience worries and fears, anxiety disorder We experience these emotions extensively and often for unspecified reasons.
medicine can relieve symptoms of anxietybut it’s not because TRUE Finding the right drug or combination of drugs can be a time-consuming process because we know what’s going on in the brains of people with anxiety. trial and error.
Suppression of the gene appeared to reduce stress and reduce anxiety-related behaviors.
of anxiety gene: To understand what’s going on in the brain and causing anxiety, the UK-led research team restrained mice for six hours to induce a stress response and analyzed the rodent brain at the molecular level. .
This will discover Increased levels of five microRNAs (miRNAs) (small molecules that help determine which genes are expressed and which are not in the cell) in the amygdala, a brain region involved in anxiety.
When the researchers took a closer look at the miRNA that reached the highest levels, miR-483-5p, it suppressed the expression of the Pgap2 gene, and this suppression appeared to reduce stress and reduce anxiety-related behaviors. I understand.
“miRNAs are strategically primed to control complex neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety.” Said Co-lead author Valentina Mosienko. “However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms they use to regulate stress resilience and sensitivity have so far been largely unknown.”
“The miR483-5p/Pgap2 pathway … offers great potential for the development of anxiolytic therapies.”
Valentina Moschenko
Future plans: If further research validates the findings in the human brain, the discovery of this anxiety gene and natural ways to put the brakes on it could serve as a blueprint for treatments to help people with anxiety disorders. .
“The miR483-5p/Pgap2 pathway identified in this study, whose activation exerts anxiolytic effects, offers great potential for the development of anxiolytic therapies for complex human mental conditions,” said Mosienko. I’m here.
this article was first published by its sister site, Freethink.
