A scientific study conducted by the State University of Milan, IRCCS Fatebenefratelli of Brescia and Kings College of London has demonstrated the link between genes and traumatic events of developmental age in the subsequent development of depressive disorders. The research, which was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, demonstrates how environmental factors, and in particular stressful and traumatic events during the first years of life, can exert a synergistic effect with the vulnerability determined by one's genetic background. This study reinforces the idea that some gene variants, also known as polymorphisms, can interact with the adverse environment, making some individuals more vulnerable than others to developing psychopathologies. The study authors used a new approach by crossing data from different tissues, from preclinical models, and from trials in clinical courts. This allowed us to identify a network of new genes involved in inflammation and stress response processes as possible vulnerability genes for depression. The most interesting result was when the authors observed, in two different clinical courts (an American court of patients with Depression and exposed to traumatic events and a Norwegian court of subjects who during adolescence had been separated from their parents due to the Second world war) that individuals with certain variants in these genes were significantly more likely to develop depressive symptoms in adulthood when exposed to stressful events during adolescence. "The study - commented Marco Riva, professor of pharmacology at the University and author of the study - underlines the importance of understanding the mechanisms by which a genetic predisposition can interact with adverse environmental events, and exert a long-term effect that is then unmasked in adulthood, with the onset of depressive pathology ". The results of this study will allow to identify subjects more at risk for the development of psychiatric diseases but also the identification of new targets useful for the development of drugs, which if administered preventively, could be useful to minimize the risk of developing these pathologies.
