Understanding How Stress is Biologically Embedded
Past research has established that people are more likely to develop depression after experiencing stress or adversity. However, we still don’t fully understand how stress “gets under the skin”, or causes biological changes to create this long-term vulnerability.
We’re working to understand the mechanisms linking stress to depression risk by identifying biomarkers, such as epigenetic signatures, that do not alter the sequence of the genome, but rather shape how genes are expressed.
Our currently funded work in this area is exploring how early exposure to stressors—including poverty, maltreatment, and other adversities—can leave epigenetic marks known as DNA methylation (DNAm) changes, which in turn can increase risk for depression in childhood, adolescence, and even adulthood. For example, we are currently studying these relationships in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and the Drakenstein Child Health and Development Study.
Understanding the biological pathways connecting stress to depression can help us better understand the causes of depression and therefore focus our interventions on potentially modifiable biological targets.
Selected Publications on Epigenetics
Lussier, A.A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B.J., Simpkin, A.J., Smith, D.A.C., Suderman, M.J., Walton, E., Relton, C, Ressler, K.J., & Dunn, E.C. (2022). Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Updated results from a prospective, longitudinal study. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.04.002
Lussier, A.A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B.J., Simpkin, A.J., Smith, A.D.A.C., Suderman, M.J., Walton, E., Ressler, K.J., & Dunn, E.C. (2022). Updates to data versions and analytic methods influence the reproducibility of results from epigenome-wide association studies. Epigenetics, DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2022.2028072 .
Cerutti, J., Zhu, Y., Lussier, A.A., Liu, J. & Dunn, E.C. (2021). Associations between indicators of socioeconomic position and DNA methylation: A scoping review. Clinical Epigenetics, 13, 221.
Marini, S., Davis, K.A., Soare, T.W., Zhu, Y., Suderman, M.J., Simpkin, A.J., Smith, A.D.A.C., Wolf, E.J., Relton, C.L., & Dunn, E.C. (2020). Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 113(3), 104484. PMCID: PMC7832214. PMID: 31918390.
Dunn, E.C., Soare, T.W., Zhu, Y., Simpkin, A.J., Suderman, M.J., Klengel, T., Smith, A.D.A.C, Ressler, K., & Relton, C.L. (2019). Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Results from a prospective, longitudinal study. Biological Psychiatry, 15; 85(10): 838-849. PMCID: PMC6552666. PMID: 30905381.