Identification of primate neural circuits that is related to social anxiety

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19497
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 51:Brain sciences and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Amemori Ken-ichi 京都大学, 高等研究院, 特定拠点准教授 (70344471)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 不安障害 / 社会不安障害 / 全般性不安障害 / 線条体 / 社会性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have found that generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder interactomes showed exclusive and statistically significant overlaps with the interactomes of two distinct striatal compartments, i.e., striosome and matrix. We have made a novel and important discovery about the functionally distinct striatal pathways, which may influence the etiological differentiation of various anxiety disorders.　We examined two striatal compartments called striosomes and matrix and assembled the interactomes of genes differentially expressed in the striosome and the matrix (i.e., striosome and matrix interactomes, SMIs). Interestingly, these interactomes showed preferential overlap with specific ADIs. We thus have found that generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder interactomes showed exclusive and statistically significant overlaps with the striosome and matrix interactomes (SMIs), respectively.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

社会的なストレス、例えば、学校や会社でのいじめや理不尽な扱いで心身を病んでしまうヒトは多い。社会に対する不安に基づく不安障害は社会不安障害と呼ばれ、社会的にも大きな課題となる精神疾患である。本研究は、社会不安にかかわる神経回路の同定を目指して、化学遺伝学による経路選択的な神経活動操作の基盤技術の確立を行った。さらに、社会不安障害にかかわる遺伝子の解析、生体内分子間の相互作用解析を行い、社会不安障害のインタラクトームは、マトリックスのインタラクトームと統計的に有意なオーバーラップを示すことがわかった。これらのことからヒトを含む霊長類の社会不安にかかわる大脳基底核経路が示唆された。