Resting mononuclear cell NR3C1 and SKA2 expression levels predict blunted cortisol reactivity to combat training stress among elite army cadets exposed to childhood adversity

Decreased mononuclear cell NR3C1 SKA2 and FKPB5 expression levels among adult survivors of suicide bombing terror attacks in childhood are associated with the development of PTSD

Life threatening trauma and the development of PTSD during childhood, may each associate with transcriptional perturbation of immune cell glucocorticoid reactivity, yet their separable longer term contributions are less clear. The current study compared resting mononuclear cell gene expression levels of the nuclear receptor, subfamily 3, member 1 (NR3C1) coding the glucocorticoid receptor, its trans-activator spindle and kinetochore-associated protein 2 (SKA2), and its co-chaperon FKBP prolyl isomerase 5 (FKBP5), between a cohort of young adults first seen at the Hadassah Emergency Department (ED) after surviving a suicide bombing terror attack during childhood, and followed longitudinally over the years, and matched healthy controls not exposed to life threatening trauma. While significant reductions in mononuclear cell gene expression levels were observed among young adults for all three transcripts following early trauma exposure, the development of subsequent PTSD beyond trauma exposure, accounted for a small but significant portion of the variance in each of the three transcripts. Long-term perturbation in the expression of immune cell glucocorticoid response transcripts persists among young adults who develop PTSD following life threatening trauma exposure in childhood, denoting chronic dysregulation of immune stress reactivity.

Childhood maltreatment and DNA methylation: A systematic review

Child maltreatment (CM) encompasses sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic and family violence. Epigenetic research investigating CM has focused on differential DNA methylation (DNAm) in genes associated with the stress response, but there has been limited evaluation of the specific effects of subtypes of CM. This systematic review of literature investigating DNAm associated with CM in non-clinical populations aimed to summarise the approaches currently used in research, how the type of maltreatment and age of exposure were encoded via methylation, and which genes have consistently been associated with CM. A total of fifty-four papers were eligible for review, including forty-one candidate gene studies, eight epigenome-wide association studies, and five studies with a mixed design. The ways in which the various forms of CM were conceptualised and measured varied between papers. Future studies would benefit from assessments that employ conceptually robust definitions of CM, and that capture important contextual information such as age of exposure and subtype of CM.

The role of glucocorticoid receptor gene in the association between attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and smaller brain structures

ADHD is associated with smaller subcortical brain volumes and cortical surface area, with greater effects observed in children than adults. It is also associated with dysregulation of the HPA axis. Considering the effects of the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) in neurophysiology, we hypothesize that the blurred relationships between brain structures and ADHD in adults could be partly explained by NR3C1 gene variation. Structural T1-weighted images were acquired on a 3 T scanner (N = 166). Large-scale genotyping was performed, and it was followed by quality control and pruning procedures, which resulted in 48 independent NR3C1 gene variants analyzed. After a stringent Bonferroni correction, two SNPs (rs2398631 and rs72801070) moderated the association between ADHD and accumbens and amygdala volumes in adults. The significant SNPs that interacted with ADHD appear to have a role in gene expression regulation, and they are in linkage disequilibrium with NR3C1 variants that present well-characterized physiological functions. The literature-reported associations of ADHD with accumbens and amygdala were only observed for specific NR3C1 genotypes. Our findings reinforce the influence of the NR3C1 gene on subcortical volumes and ADHD. They suggest a genetic modulation of the effects of a pivotal HPA axis component in the neuroanatomical features of ADHD.