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New Directions in the Search for Genes Causing Stress and Anxiety
(Great Neck, NY -
) — NARSAD's search for new insights into the causes of anxiety and stress disorders has led to a research grant for a veterinarian physician, Christine S. Barr, V.M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Barr was awarded a NARSAD 2004 Young Investigator Award to investigate mood disorders in her studies of the brains of Macaque monkeys. Dr. Barr's research seeks to identify gene pathways in the Macaques that have been altered by chronic stress. Her experiments are aimed at enhancing understanding of a variant gene’s role in stress, comparing it to that in animals with serotonin transporter variant that is similar to the human version. This builds upon her previous research demonstrating that people with a genetic variant in the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR are more likely to become depressed after experiencing early stress. Her research utilizes microarray technology to study the activity of many genes simultaneously in the post-mortem brain tissue of Macaques which have been exposed to early stress.
In her previous work, Dr. Barr identified a variation in a gene that can predispose women to developing stress-related anxiety and mood disorders after being exposed to early life stress, such as child abuse. The goal of the current research is to enhance understanding of the variant gene’s role in stress and therefore possibly lead to new treatment for stress-related depression.
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