Unmet Need:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recognized by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Institute of Mental Health as a major medical issue for both deployed and returning U.S. troops. PTSD rates in military personnel following deployment range from 5 to 15% (Sundin et al, 2010; Reijnen et al, 2015). Even though several risk factors for deployment-related PTSD have been identified (Sandweiss et al, 2011), the etiology of PTSD remains an area of active research. It has been difficult to accurately identify who is at risk for PTSD after exposure to traumatic stress, and reliable blood-based biomarkers for PTSD vulnerability are being identified. Nevertheless, prediction of deployment-related PTSD vulnerability is of great importance as it would facilitate prevention of the detrimental social and personal consequences of PTSD.
Technical Overview:
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis alterations in PTSD individuals have been implicated in the past and various biomarkers such as spindle and kinetochore associated protein 2 (SKA2) have been demonstrated to be important for other HPA axis related phenomenon leading to psychiatric phenotypes such as suicide. The current invention is a method for determining which individuals are at risk of developing PTSD after exposure to stressful events modeling risk using the SKA2 locus.
Stage of Development:
Preclinical
Publication(s):
Neuropsychopharmacology volume 41, pages 1350–1356 (2016)
