Systems biology approach to understanding post-traumatic stress disorder

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder affecting individuals that have experienced life-changing traumatic events. The symptoms of PTSD experienced by these subjects-including acute anxiety, flashbacks, and hyper-arousal-disrupt their normal functioning. Although PTSD is still categorized as a psychological disorder, recent years have witnessed a multi-directional research effort attempting to understand the biomolecular origins of the disorder. This review begins by providing a brief overview of the known biological underpinnings of the disorder resulting from studies using structural and functional neuroimaging, endocrinology, and genetic and epigenetic assays. Next, we discuss the systems biology approach, which is often used to gain mechanistic insights from the wealth of available high-throughput experimental data. Finally, we provide an overview of the current computational tools used to decipher the heterogeneous types of molecular data collected in the study of PTSD.

Multi-omic biomarker identification and validation for diagnosing warzone-related post-traumatic stress disorder

“…By employing a systems biology framework, multi-omic datasests provide the ability to understand the underlying disease network-associated biological processes [16]. The systems biology approach aims to characterize a large and diverse set of molecules within an illness or individual by examining entire biological systems, not just individual components, allowing the assessment of interactions among levels of cellular pathology, ranging from DNA to circulating metabolites [17][18][19]. This approach has the potential to provide a more comprehensive characterization of illnesses, to track underlying biological dysregulation before clinical symptoms develop or worsen, to lead to the identification of improved diagnostic markers, and to allow for the discovery of novel targets for treatment [20].…”

Systems approach to the study of brain damage in the very preterm newborn

“…To add to the complexity, epigenetic phenomena influence the balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory capabilities (Correa et al, 2011 ; Sarnico et al, 2012 ; Aithal and Rajeswari, 2013 ; Cai et al, 2013 ; Su et al, 2013 ). As might be expected, systems biologists are paying attention to epigenetic phenomena (Sookoian et al, 2013 ; Dekker, 2014 ; Maze et al, 2014 ; Schadt et al, 2014 ; Klin et al, 2015 ; Thakur et al, 2015 ). Preconditioning/tolerance, the diminished damage that follows a damaging exposure when it is preceded by a sub-injurious exposure (Hagberg et al, 2004 ), has also attracted the attention of systems biologists (Voit, 2009 ; Jusko, 2013 ; León et al, 2013 ; Gong et al, 2014 ).…”

Deconvolution of Transcriptional Networks in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Uncovers Master Regulators Driving Innate Immune System Function

“… 1 . Unlike many other psychiatric disorders, PTSD may occur in individuals after experiencing terrifying events such as traumatic incidents, kidnapping, or natural disaster 2 . PTSD affects almost 7–8% of the general population in the United States 2 .…”

“…Unlike many other psychiatric disorders, PTSD may occur in individuals after experiencing terrifying events such as traumatic incidents, kidnapping, or natural disaster 2 . PTSD affects almost 7–8% of the general population in the United States 2 . This percentage is even higher, up to 20% in military troops being deployed in the battle fields such as Iraq or Afghanistan 3 , 4 .…”