TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ziegler, Christiane
A1  - Richter, Jan
A1  - Mahr, Marina
A1  - Gajewska, Agnes
A1  - Schiele, Miriam A.
A1  - Gehrmann, Andrea
A1  - Schmidt, Brad
A1  - Lesch, Klaus-Peter J.
A1  - Lang, Thomas
A1  - Helbig-Lang, Sylvia
A1  - Pauli, Paul
A1  - Kircher, Tilo
A1  - Reif, Andreas
A1  - Rief, Winfried
A1  - Voßbeck-Elsebusch, Anna Nicola
A1  - Arolt, Volker
A1  - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich
A1  - Hamm, Alfons
A1  - Deckert, Jürgen
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
T1  - MAOA gene hypomethylation in panic disorder-reversibility of an epigenetic risk pattern by psychotherapy
T2  - Translational Psychiatry
N2  - Epigenetic signatures such as methylation of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene have been found to be altered in panic disorder (PD). Hypothesizing temporal plasticity of epigenetic processes as a mechanism of successful fear extinction, the present psychotherapy-epigenetic study for we believe the first time investigated MAOA methylation changes during the course of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in PD. MAOA methylation was compared between N=28 female Caucasian PD patients (discovery sample) and N=28 age- and sex-matched healthy controls via direct sequencing of sodium bisulfite-treated DNA extracted from blood cells. MAOA methylation was furthermore analyzed at baseline (T0) and after a 6-week CBT (T1) in the discovery sample parallelized by a waiting time in healthy controls, as well as in an independent sample of female PD patients (N=20). Patients exhibited lower MAOA methylation than healthy controls (P<0.001), and baseline PD severity correlated negatively with MAOA methylation (P=0.01). In the discovery sample, MAOA methylation increased up to the level of healthy controls along with CBT response (number of panic attacks; T0–T1: +3.37±2.17%), while non-responders further decreased in methylation (−2.00±1.28%; P=0.001). In the replication sample, increases in MAOA methylation correlated with agoraphobic symptom reduction after CBT (P=0.02–0.03). The present results support previous evidence for MAOA hypomethylation as a PD risk marker and suggest reversibility of MAOA hypomethylation as a potential epigenetic correlate of response to CBT. The emerging notion of epigenetic signatures as a mechanism of action of psychotherapeutic interventions may promote epigenetic patterns as biomarkers of lasting extinction effects.
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/44023
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-440239
SN  - 2158-3188
N1  - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
VL  - 6
IS  - 4, e773
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
CY  - London
ER  -