Pregnancy is an incredibly special and delicate time for all parents. In those early stages of development, the environment, both inside and outside the body, can drastically impact fetal and long-term health.
A recent study has identified a new area that can be influenced, diagnosed, and treated before birth: neuropsychiatric disorders.
The Placenta and Psychiatric Disorders
The key to understanding the genetic risk of neuropsychiatric disorders is in the placenta. The international research team, composed of 28 researchers from across Europe and the U.S., has identified the placenta as playing an important role in neuropsychiatric development.
According to the study published in Nature Communications, particular modifications in the placenta can impact the expression of the genes associated with certain psychiatric disorders. This finding confirms that certain types of genetic risk can appear and be identified during the prenatal stage.
The psychiatric disorders most commonly linked to the environment of the placenta are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. However, there is some indication that other neuropsychiatric disorders, like ADHD and autism, may also be impacted.
“These findings reinforce the hypothesis that schizophrenia and other disorders have a neurodevelopmental origin and that the placenta plays a fundamental role in this process,” said Nora Fernandez-Jimenez, in a press release.
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What Does the Placenta Do?
It is well known that all different kinds of stressors can affect the quality and safety of a baby’s first home. Stress during pregnancy is related to a myriad of health problems, including cardiovascular, metabolic, and behavioral issues.
The placenta plays a large role in creating the perfect environment for a fetus to develop and thrive. It acts as the primary link and boundary between parent and child during pregnancy as the short-lived organ controls the transport of nutrients, oxygen, waste, and endocrine signals.
Due to this vital job, the placenta plays a major role in the neurodevelopment of the fetus.
DNA Modifications
The focus of this study is on epigenetic modifications occurring within the placenta. Epigenetic modifications are chemical changes in DNA and associated proteins. These changes manage gene activity but don’t alter the DNA sequence.
DNA methylation is one of the most common types of modifications studied. In this process, small molecules are added to specific regions of a DNA sequence.
This type of modification is important to study because it is essential for fetal development, environmental adaptation, and disease predisposition. It is also highly influenced by genetics and can be altered or intensified based on external factors such as diet, stress, and exposure to pollutants.
By discovering the connection between the genetic risk of psychiatric disorders and DNA methylation in the placenta, researchers have unlocked the possibility of new intervention methods for the prevention and treatment of these disorders.
A New Path Forward
The impact of having the ability to identify and treat psychiatric disorders at the prenatal stage is staggering.
“If we could identify risk factors at the prenatal stage, we could intervene before symptoms appear, adjusting treatments or designing personalized preventative strategies,” explained Ariadna Cilleros-Portet, a postdoctoral researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, in a press release.
The discovery represents a crucial advance in the understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders and their biological basis. Thanks to this information, researchers hope to open new lines of investigation for the early detection of these disorders, which will also allow for the development of more effective therapies.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Nature Communications. Potentially causal associations between placental DNA methylation and schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders
As the marketing coordinator at Discover Magazine, Stephanie Edwards interacts with readers across Discover's social media channels and writes digital content. Offline, she is a contract lecturer in English & Cultural Studies at Lakehead University, teaching courses on everything from professional communication to Taylor Swift, and received her graduate degrees in the same department from McMaster University. You can find more of her science writing in Lab Manager and her short fiction in anthologies and literary magazine across the horror genre.
