McGill and the Neuroscience Center of Zurich team up for the study of somnological and circadian bases of major affective disorders
Jessica Colby-Milley
B@M: August 18th, 2013
Since its launch in 2009, the Brain@McGill has opened new doors for neuroscience research and discovery through its international partnerships with Oxford University, Imperial College London and the Neuroscience Center of Zurich. The Brain@McGill has provided an infrastructure fostering collaborative research between McGill and its partners through the funding of workshops, pilot projects and the mobilization of trainees between institutes. The most recent of these partnerships was founded in October 2010, with the Neuroscience Center of Zurich (ZNZ), a network of over 100 research groups from the University of Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the five university hospitals of Zurich. With two competition rounds per year, over 8 pilot projects and joint workshops between McGill and ZNZ researchers have been funded to date. One such collaboration that has built important ties through the B@M is the McGill ZNZ network for the study of somnological and circadian bases of major affective disorders.
Experts from McGill and ZNZ have joined forces to work towards improved characterization of the sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances experienced by individuals with major depressive disorder. Disrupted sleep patterns and circadian rhythms are frequently observed in depressed patients, whereby up to 90% of patients can experience difficulty falling and staying asleep, as well as early morning awakenings (Germain and Kupfer 2008). Such a high prevalence alone warrants further research into understanding the dynamics of sleep and circadian rhythm alterations associated with major depression. However, a crucial feature of such alterations is their potential role in the mechanisms contributing to the cause and maintenance of depression. It is known that sleep disturbances are associated with a higher risk of both initial and recurrent depressive episodes (Franzen and Buysse 2008). However, the manifestation of sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances in a population of individuals with major depressive disorder are highly heterogeneous, supporting the need for a better characterization of such symptoms.
The McGill ZNZ network for the study of somnological and circadian bases of major affective disorders received their first Brain@McGill funding as a joint workshop grant in April 2012. The workshop took place in Montreal on June 14th, 2012 and provided an opportunity for the participants to showcase their research and plan for future collaborations. The team included Drs. Diane Boivin, Nicolas Cermakian, Florian Storch and Gustavo Turecki from the Douglas Institute and Drs. Hans-Peter Landolt, Steven Brown and Erich Seifritz from ZNZ. Following the workshop, the group submitted an application for a Brain@McGill pilot project grant and was awarded $30 000 towards their study. Another workshop and mini-symposium was held on March 12-13 2013 in Zurich. This was an opportunity to discuss progress launching the pilot
studies. The objective of the research being conducted under the pilot grant is to build an international, multi-disciplinary team, expanding the expertise and resources available to study sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances in major depressive disorder. The team plans to combine their expertise to characterize sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances in depressed patients from both countries and to look for polymorphism of relevant genes. Dr. Diane Boivin, Founder/Director of the Centre for Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms at the Douglas Institute, and her colleagues will study the rest-activity cycle and the rhythms of melatonin secretion and circadian clock gene expression in circulating white blood cells from patients with major depressive disorder and healthy controls. Measures made from these peripheral clocks can then be used to infer activity of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the body’s central clock. They will also apply an innovative technique developed by Dr. Steven Brown and colleagues at ZNZ, which measures molecular circadian rhythms in fibroblasts cultured from human skin biopsies with the use of a lentiviral circadian reporter. Both teams will work in close collaboration to standardize patient recruitment, data collection and analyses in both countries. In addition to increasing the range of expertise available for the study, this collaboration will allow for a larger clinical population, an important advantage when dealing with a highly heterogeneous group of patients.
As explained by Dr. Diane Boivin, the research conducted under the pilot project grant will help demonstrate the feasibility of their scientific approach, placing them in a favorable position to apply for further funding of this research program. The Brain@McGill is currently welcoming applications for the 6th competition round for the funding of joint workshops, pilot projects and graduate/post-graduate travel grants between McGill and ZNZ.
Please see https://www.mcgill.ca/brain/international-partners/neuroscience-center-z... for further details.
References:
Franzen, P. L. and D. J. Buysse (2008). "Sleep disturbances and depression: risk relationships for subsequent depression and therapeutic implications." Dialogues Clin Neurosci 10(4): 473-481.
Germain, A. and D. J. Kupfer (2008). "Circadian rhythm disturbances in depression." Hum Psychopharmacol 23(7): 571-585.