Study Says DNA may Uncover If Death is Depression or Suicide

A new study of brain tissue collected during autopsies may reveal if a person fell victim to major depression or suicide.

Brain tissue collected during autopsies may reveal if a person fell victim to major depression or suicide, a new study has said.

Led by Dr. Michael O. Poulter of Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario and Dr. Hymie Anisman of the Neuroscience Research Institute at Carleton University, the researchers revealed that proteins that modify DNA directly are more highly expressed in the brains of people who commit suicide.

Depression - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting approximately 340 million people in the world. No one is immune from depression - it occurs in people of all social classes, all countries and all cultural settings.

These proteins are involved in chemically modifying DNA in a process called epigenomic regulation.

In their study, the researchers compared the brains of people who committed suicide with those of a control group who died suddenly, from heart attacks and other causes.

The findings revealed that the genome in depressed people who had committed suicide was chemically modified by a process that is normally involved in regulating the essential characteristics of all cells in the body.

Adolescent Depression - Causes - Affects - Depressed Teens - Treatment - FAQs
Adolescent depression is an ailment that occurs during the teenage characterized by persistent melancholy, disappointment and loss of self-esteem.

"We have about 40,000 genes in every cell and the main reason a brain cell is a brain cell is because only a small fraction of the genes are turned on. The remaining genes that are not expressed are shut down by an epigenetic process called DNA methylation," said Poulter.

It was discovered that methylation in the suicide brains was much greater than that of the control group. In fact, one of the genes they studied was shown to be heavily chemically modified and its expression was reduced. This particular gene plays a major role in regulating brain activity.

Advertisements

Overview Suicide
Suicide is an act of ending one's own life and it usually results from emotional isolations and inability to adjust and cope with one's environment.

"Interestingly, the nature of this chemical modification is long term and hard to reverse, and this fits with depression," said Poulter.

"The whole idea that the genome is so malleable in the brain is surprising. Finding that epigenetic mechanisms continue to influence gene expression is pretty unusualThese observations open an entirely new avenue of research and potential therapeutic interventions," said Poulter, who is also a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.