Childhood environment can have a profound impact on brain structure and function. Epigenetic mechanisms have been shown to play a critical role in adaptive and maladaptive processes by regulating gene expression without changing the genome. Over the past few years, early life stress (ELS) has been established as a major risk factor for major depression and suicidal behavior along with other psychiatric illnesses in adulthood. In recent years, the emergence of small noncoding RNAs as a mega controller of gene expression has gained attention for their role in various disease processes. Among various noncoding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) are the most studied and well characterized and have emerged as a major regulator of neural plasticity and higher brain functioning. More recently, although limited in number, studies are focusing on how miRNAs can play a role in the maladaptive processes associated with ELS both at adolescent and adult age and whether these processes are critical in developing depression and suicidal behavior. In this review, we critically evaluate how postnatal ELS relates to abnormalities in miRNA expression and functions from both animal and human literature and draw connections from these findings to depression and suicidal behavior later in life.

中文翻译：

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早期生活应激易患抑郁症和自杀行为的 MicroRNA 介导物。


童年环境会对大脑结构和功能产生深远的影响。表观遗传机制已被证明在不改变基因组的情况下调节基因表达，在适应和适应不良过程中发挥关键作用。在过去的几年里，早期生活压力（ELS）已被确定为成年期重度抑郁症和自杀行为以及其他精神疾病的主要危险因素。近年来，小非编码RNA作为基因表达的巨型控制器的出现因其在各种疾病过程中的作用而受到关注。在各种非编码 RNA 中，microRNA (miRNA) 是研究最多、表征最充分的，并已成为神经可塑性和高级大脑功能的主要调节因子。最近，虽然数量有限，但研究的重点是 miRNA 如何在青少年和成年时期与 ELS 相关的适应不良过程中发挥作用，以及这些过程是否对抑郁和自杀行为的发展至关重要。在这篇综述中，我们从动物和人类文献中批判性地评估了产后 ELS 与 miRNA 表达和功能异常之间的关系，并从这些发现与晚年抑郁和自杀行为之间建立了联系。