Temporal Genomics Mechanisms Underlying Disease and Aging

NCT03637751 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 34

Last updated 2021-09-28

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Given the salient role of early-life adversity and the resulting biological embedding in disease risk, there is a critical need to understand the mechanisms operating at multiple levels of analysis in order to promote effective clinical treatments and intervention efforts for survivors. An example for such an effort could be to utilize models of dynamic cellular markers as individual-level factors to account for variation in intervention response and clinical outcomes. Results of this study will lead to new knowledge about specific gene expression pathways in response to stress, and whether the response is moderated by previous exposure to early adversity, shorter telomere length (a marker of cellular aging) and self-report mental-health measures. Thus, the long-term effects of this study will advance our understanding on stress-related transcriptomic changes that play a downstream role in disease susceptibility and accelerated aging, with the goal of targeting specific pathways and genes for potential intervention studies and pharmacological treatments to reverse the effects of exposure to early adversity. For example, considering high failure rates for depression treatments, and in order to tailor individual interventions, identifying objective changes in stress-induced gene expression may help to predict intervention efficacy in clinical and non-clinical settings, as seen, for example, in breast and leukemia cancers. Thus, findings will have a range of impacts for basic science, intervention studies and clinical practice that will influence treatments to match the specific cellular processes operating within an individual.

Conditions

  • Gene Expression in Response to Acute Stress

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Behavioral

Trier Social Stress Test

BEHAVIORAL

Control condition

In the no-stress control condition, participants will be instructed to sit in a room, read magazines, and to refrain from any stressful activities (e.g., cell-phone use will be restricted).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Penn State University

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
25 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2018-08-21
Primary Completion
2021-06-30
Completion
2021-06-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03637751 on ClinicalTrials.gov