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posted by martyb on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the fight-or-flight-or...-get-sick? dept.

It is well established that stress can alter the activation pattern of our genes. Stress also triggers epigenetic mechanisms which modulate how DNA, the carrier of genetic information, is read. The genetic information on the DNA is in the next step ‘translated’ into RNA, which is the blueprint of proteins. In a groundbreaking study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPI) have shown for the first time that stress can also cause similar “epigenetic” changes on the RNA level. The research results were recently published in the internationally renowned journal Neuron.

It was recently rediscovered that RNA can be modified by chemical tags in a similar way to the epigenetic modifications seen on DNA. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is made up of four molecular building blocks: adenosine, cytidine, guanosine and uridine, which can be modified by the attachment of chemical tag. These tags or RNA modifications provide a sophisticated extra layer of gene regulation.

A modification of mRNA, which occurs post-transcriptionally is methylation of adenosine and the most abundant is N6-methyladenosine (m6A). Although m6A was first described in 1974, recent technological advances were necessary before more detailed analyses of the epitranscriptome could be carried out.

[...] Alon Chen, Director at the Institute and head of the project explains: “Increasing evidence suggests that the fine-tuning seen with mRNA methylation may underlie the etiology of psychiatric disorders. We think that elucidating the role of mRNA methylation in regulating brain function will help us to better understand psychiatric disorders.”


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:10PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:10PM (#721333)

    Subversive thoughts detected. Psychiatric correction robots deployed. Hold still for mandatory injections.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by fishybell on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:11PM (3 children)

      by fishybell (3156) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:11PM (#721368)

      As someone who takes psychiatric medication, let me just say this:

      I would have loved if someone had told me to take these drugs. They completely changed my life, in the best of ways.

      Instead I had to find figure it out on my own, which meant I was unmedicated from the onset of symptoms in my early twenties to my early thirties when I finally saw a psychiatrist. To get those ten years back (especially the last 5 of them) could have drastically changed my career arc. I probably would have been able to finish college, I would probably have been able to have a normal relationship, I wouldn't have gotten fired from my job, etc. etc.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:24PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:24PM (#721372)

        It would be an interesting experiment for your psychiatrist to ween you off the drugs unbeknownst to you, until you were just taking sugar pills or whatever.

        What are your problems? What is your condition? How does the drug change you?

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by EventH0rizon on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:41PM (1 child)

        by EventH0rizon (936) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:41PM (#721607) Journal

        And this is the message I am (so far) failing to deliver to my 22 year old son who is experiencing mania, psychosis, paranoia and dis-associative thinking.

        Diagnosed as schizotypal at a young age, he had a nine month course of very low dose anti-psychotic drugs at 18 and they proved very effective at the time.

        His symptoms now are much more worrying but despite being hospitalized for a week, he is determined that he has no problem and needs no medication. His downhill trajectory is pretty familiar to those who deal with mental health and it's awful to witness, particularly when medication can be so affective.

        I would give anything to be able to get his head around your very experience fishybell.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:41AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:41AM (#721668)

          > I would give anything to be able to get his head around your very experience fishybell.

          Seconded. My sister tried stopping her meds a few times in her 20s, when she was feeling pretty normal, but each time descended into a dark place. The last time she was nearly catatonic for a month, didn't talk or bathe, swiped food from an institutional kitchen at night like a foraging animal. That last time seems to have scared her to the extent that she has stayed on for about 25 years now, held down a part time job and led a normal (if somewhat less than "fully functional") life.

          She takes something pretty scary, has weekly blood tests to make sure that she hasn't suddenly developed a deadly reaction to the drug. A few times her doc has lowered her dose slightly, which makes her pretty nervous. At least once the reduction was too much and symptoms returned. No one seems to know if she can ever get off completely, but everyone agrees that less is better (as long as she has enough).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:19PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:19PM (#721347)

    Americans, Jews, Muslims, and the warmongering tribes of Africa subject boys to an extremely painful ordeal.

    I wonder what effect this has had on their populations.

    Besides the physical trauma, Muslim boys are particularly subjected to the psychological trauma, as it is traditional to do this to them around the age 7-to-12 years old, often en masse (certainly common in Malaysia and Turkey). Similarly, upwards of one hundred young tribal teenagers die in South Africa every year or so when forcibly circumcised.

    What does cutting up the sexual organs of half the population do, especially it is forced upon them at tender ages? How does it affect gender relations, and how does it train both the bodies and minds of young men in their approach to dealing with the world at large?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:43PM (#721357)

      Circumcision trains a boy to rape a virgin in a vain attempt to regain his lost foreskin by breaking her hymen.

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:09PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:09PM (#721592) Journal

      It's got to mess them up badly, even if done to them as little babies. This is one reason my particular brand of feminism has a very strong anti-circumcision streak to it: if nothing else, one way to knock down the rate of men abusing women is to stop people in general abusing boys in the first place, and yes, this IS a form of childhood physical and sexual abuse. Leave our babies alone, ALL of them.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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