Dalvie, S., Chatzinakos, C., Al Zoubi, O., Georgiadis, F., PGC-PTSD Systems Biology workgroup, Lancashire, L., Daskalakis, N.P. From genetics to systems biology of stress-related mental disorders. Neurobiology of Stress (2021)
Many individuals will be exposed to some form of traumatic stress in their lifetime which, in turn, increases the
likelihood of developing stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive
disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders (ANX). The development of these disorders is also influenced by genetics
and have heritability estimates ranging between ~30 and 70%. In this review, we provide an overview of the
findings of genome-wide association studies for PTSD, depression and ANX, and we observe a clear genetic
overlap between these three diagnostic categories. We go on to highlight the results from transcriptomic and
epigenomic studies, and, given the multifactorial nature of stress-related disorders, we provide an overview of
the gene-environment studies that have been conducted to date. Finally, we discuss systems biology approaches
that are now seeing wider utility in determining a more holistic view of these complex disorders.
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