Mental Disorders and Translational Psychiatry: From Neurobiology to Therapeutic Perspective
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Neurobiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 9761
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Interests: biochemistry; clinical biochemistry; biomarkers of disease; biomarkers of mental disorders
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Mental disorders exert a huge burden on global human health and healthcare programs. Recent epidemiological data from health organizations report that about 40–50% of people worldwide may develop mental distress in their lifetime. Furthermore, mental disorders in their full-blown and severe forms can lead to inadequate lifestyles, high disability, social isolation and even discrimination, causing a reduction in life expectancy, and serious damage to those affected, to their family and, ultimately, to the entire community.
As a matter of fact, one of the main characteristics of psychiatric conditions is their prominent heterogeneity in the presentation of symptoms, as well as their tendency to become chronic and relapse from therapies. A consequent and increasingly emergent feature of mental diseases is also related to the frequent description of psychiatric comorbidity, or the presence in a single patient of more than one disorder. Additionally, mental illness may considerably increase vulnerability to somatic disorders such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, autoimmune and/or inflammatory diseases, as well as, in some cases, to neurodegeneration. Based on these assumptions, the urgency and usefulness of identifying potential risk factors that can explain how and when these highly disabling conditions can arise and/or negatively progress is topical, especially for developing ever-more targeted, tailored and refined therapeutic interventions. In the attempt to reach these aims, unraveling the neurobiological bases of mental disorders is fundamental. The development of neuroscience research in this field and the evolution of psychiatric diagnostic criteria, extending to the formulation of the concept of mental spectrum disorder, have suggested that these disabilities can derive from a variable gene as defined through genomic studies. These investigations have often revealed common polygenic correlates and genetic variants impacting human behavioral traits. Evidence has also shown that mental disorders may underlie dysfunctional neural circuits and molecular and metabolic alterations in the brain. Such variations involve not only the originally identified monoamine neurotransmission impairment, but also, to changing degrees, other interacting neurotransmitter systems such as the glutamate/GABA circuitries, catecholamine-related signaling, the activity of endocannabinoid-sensitive synapses, neuromodulators as neuropeptides and neurotrophins, neuroendocrine axes of stress adaptation/resilience (allostatic response), danger (damage)- associated molecular patterns (DAMPS), immunity, inflammasomes, purinergic and amino acid metabolism/sensing and mitochondrial functions, as well as epigenetic modifications, RNA transcriptomics, metabotropic/ionotropic receptor signal paths, protein kinases/phosphatase regulation and redox-buffer reactions. Even if it appears still premature to attest to the precise cause–effect relationships between these molecular patterns in the pathogenesis of mental disorders, the detection of neuroendocrine imbalance and a dysregulated brain-to-periphery communication in patients suffering from a specific mental disorder is thought to reveal their molecular signatures and vulnerabilities, following an integrated vision of disease. Under this prism, the present Special Issue will consider full-research articles, narrative or systematic reviews and metanalyses focused on new findings in the search of neurobiological alterations of mental diseases, as well as the detection of peripheral biomarkers in translational psychiatry, with particular reference to mood disorders (depressive disorders; bipolar Disorders), psychotic disorders, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), by highlighting aspects linked to phenotypic heterogeneity, psychiatric and somatic comorbidities, lifestyle and nutritional aspects, resistance to pharmacological treatment and therapeutic perspectives.
This special issue is led by Dr. Lionella Palego, Dr. Valerio Dell’Oste and assisted by our Topical Advisory Panel Member Dr. Kristina Mlinac-Jerković (University of Zagreb).
Dr. Lionella Palego
Dr. Valerio Dell’Oste
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- mental disorders
- illness heterogeneity
- comorbidity
- treatment resistance
- neurobiology
- applied neuroscience
- translational psychiatry
- peripheral biomarkers
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