Common genetic variation impacts stress response in the brain

Abstract

To explain why individuals exposed to identical stressors experience divergent clinical outcomes, we determine how molecular encoding of stress modifies genetic risk for brain disorders. Analysis of post-mortem brain (n=304) revealed 8557 stress-interactive expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) that dysregulate expression of 915 eGenes in response to stress, and lie in stress-related transcription factor binding sites. Response to stress is robust across experimental paradigms: up to 50% of stress-interactive eGenes validate in glucocorticoid treated hiPSC-derived neurons (n=39 donors). Stress-interactive eGenes show brain region- and cell type-specificity, and, in post-mortem brain, implicate glial and endothelial mechanisms. Stress dysregulates long-term expression of disorder risk genes in a genotype-dependent manner; stress-interactive transcriptomic imputation uncovered 139 novel genes conferring brain disorder risk only in the context of traumatic stress. Molecular stress-encoding explains individualized responses to traumatic stress; incorporating trauma into genomic studies of brain disorders is likely to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and drug discovery.Graphical Abstract

The impact of chronic pain on brain gene expression

“…Bulk tissue was sampled from four regions of each brain; the dorsolateral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), basolateral amygdala (BLA), and medial amygdala (MeA), totaling 1216 samples. Collection of brain tissue samples postmortem, genotyping, and producing gene expression data for this cohort is described in detail elsewhere 32,33 .…”