Stress hormones silence key brain genes through chromatin-bound RNAs, study reveals
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 15-Nov-2025 10:11 ET (15-Nov-2025 15:11 GMT/UTC)
A new Genomic Psychiatry High-Priority Research Communication by Professor Yogesh Dwivedi and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reports original, peer-reviewed findings demonstrating that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in stress-linked chromatin silencing during glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation. Using an in vitro neuronal model, the team identified 79 significantly altered lncRNAs (44 upregulated, 35 downregulated; p < 0.05) following GR overexpression, with several physically interacting with the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) via EZH2 and the histone mark H3K27me3. These lncRNAs inversely correlated with nearby gene expression (R = –0.21, p < 0.005), repressing genes essential for synaptic communication and neuronal signaling. The discovery offers a mechanistic link between chronic stress exposure and long-lasting gene repression, suggesting that lncRNAs could serve as molecular signatures or intervention targets in major depressive disorder.
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will honor five leading researchers whose impactful work has transformed neuroscience — including the understanding of memory, synapse formation, social reinforcement in addiction, and how neurons make sense of input noise — with this year’s Outstanding Career and Research Achievement Awards. The awards will be presented during SfN’s annual meeting.
A new study at The University of Texas at Arlington will look at how situational judgement tests (SJTs) can enhance soldier ingenuity in high-stakes environments.
CHICAGO, IL — Since the start of the 21st century, more than 800,000 people in the US have died from firearm-related injuries, and over two million have been injured. These harms stem from homicide, suicide, and unintentional shootings, reverberating through communities and resulting in psychological, social, and economic consequences that go far beyond physical injury.
Amid these persistent challenges, JAMA and JAMA Network convened a JAMA Summit in March 2025, bringing together 60 thought leaders from medicine, public health, law, industry, and community violence intervention, with a singular focus: how to substantially reduce firearm harms. Today, JAMA publishes the JAMA Summit Report on Reducing Firearm Violence and Harms, a blueprint for action featuring experts from across sectors committed to advancing evidence-based solutions to reduce firearm-related injury and death.
A new report proposes a range of initiatives to substantially reduce the harm caused by firearm violence in the United States over the next 15 years. The report, to be published Nov. 3 in the journal JAMA, proposes a range of initiatives. These include using artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies to detect concealed weapons, and expanding programs that address poverty, social distrust and other factors behind violence in American communities. Since 2000, more than 800,000 Americans have been killed and more than 2 million injured by firearms. The report summarizes discussions of 60 experts in public health, criminology, sociology, social work, public policy and other fields. “We really tried to step back and think about what innovations are needed to address the firearm problem in a new way — realizing we live in a country with a Second Amendment and somewhere around 400 million firearms in private hands,” said Dr. Frederick P. Rivara, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He chaired the summit.