Bárbara Risse Quaioto , Marcele Lorentz Mattos de Souza , Aline Ribeiro Borçoi , Suzanny Oliveira Mendes , Luiz Cláudio Barreto Silva Neto , Carlos Henrique Pagani Corrêa , Ivana Alece Arantes Moreno , Amanda Sgrancio Olinda , Ester Ribeiro Cunha , Pierre Augusto Victor da Silva , Isabela de Sousa Bianchini Marins , Anita Vargas de Castro , Elisa Soares Fassarella , Bruna Pereira Sorroche , Lídia Maria Rebolho Batista Arantes , Sônia Alves Gouvea , Pedro Luiz Ferro , Elizeu Batista Borloti , Adriana Madeira Alvares-da-Silva
{"title":"Epigenetic impact of chronic stress: BDNF exon IV gene methylation in high-risk professionals","authors":"Bárbara Risse Quaioto , Marcele Lorentz Mattos de Souza , Aline Ribeiro Borçoi , Suzanny Oliveira Mendes , Luiz Cláudio Barreto Silva Neto , Carlos Henrique Pagani Corrêa , Ivana Alece Arantes Moreno , Amanda Sgrancio Olinda , Ester Ribeiro Cunha , Pierre Augusto Victor da Silva , Isabela de Sousa Bianchini Marins , Anita Vargas de Castro , Elisa Soares Fassarella , Bruna Pereira Sorroche , Lídia Maria Rebolho Batista Arantes , Sônia Alves Gouvea , Pedro Luiz Ferro , Elizeu Batista Borloti , Adriana Madeira Alvares-da-Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.06.018","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Stress is characterized by homeostatic imbalances caused by factors known as stressors. When faced with a stressor, the body activates the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis to restore homeostasis. Repeated exposure to stressful conditions can lead to epigenetic changes. Work-related stressors in high-pressure professions, can influence the epigenetics of key genes involved in brain function, including <em>BDNF</em>. This study investigated the relationship between <em>BDNF</em> DNA methylation and stress in military police officers. A total of 123 military police officers from Metropolitan Region of Grande Vitória, ES, Brazil were recruited to assess whether stress influences methylation by pyrosequencing the <em>BDNF</em> exon IV promoter region. A Generalized Linear Model was used to analyze the effect of stress on methylation levels, controlling for important confounding factors. The results showed that stress was significantly associated with <em>BDNF</em> DNA methylation at CpG 5, CpG 6, and CpG 11 in <em>BDNF</em> exon IV, a region that includes the binding site for the transcription factor CREB. These results indicate that the chance of occurrence of higher levels of methylation was 0.259 times higher at CpG 5, 0.471 times higher at CpG 6, and 0.461 times higher at CpG 11 in military police officers under stress than in those who did not experience stress. Based on these findings, we suggest that stress may act as an environmental pressure factor with implications for <em>BDNF</em> DNA methylation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"189 ","pages":"Pages 295-300"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of psychiatric research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395625004169","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Stress is characterized by homeostatic imbalances caused by factors known as stressors. When faced with a stressor, the body activates the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis to restore homeostasis. Repeated exposure to stressful conditions can lead to epigenetic changes. Work-related stressors in high-pressure professions, can influence the epigenetics of key genes involved in brain function, including BDNF. This study investigated the relationship between BDNF DNA methylation and stress in military police officers. A total of 123 military police officers from Metropolitan Region of Grande Vitória, ES, Brazil were recruited to assess whether stress influences methylation by pyrosequencing the BDNF exon IV promoter region. A Generalized Linear Model was used to analyze the effect of stress on methylation levels, controlling for important confounding factors. The results showed that stress was significantly associated with BDNF DNA methylation at CpG 5, CpG 6, and CpG 11 in BDNF exon IV, a region that includes the binding site for the transcription factor CREB. These results indicate that the chance of occurrence of higher levels of methylation was 0.259 times higher at CpG 5, 0.471 times higher at CpG 6, and 0.461 times higher at CpG 11 in military police officers under stress than in those who did not experience stress. Based on these findings, we suggest that stress may act as an environmental pressure factor with implications for BDNF DNA methylation.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research:
(1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors;
(2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology;
(3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;