Biology subjects

Ankeeta, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Ankeeta, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Mitochondrial Response to Psychological Stress and Its Medial Prefrontal Biomarker Correlates

BackgroundStress response obligates increased mitochondrial activities to meet stress-induced high energy requirement. This stress-mitochondrial response process involves glucocorticoid but also multiple alternative pathways that are top-down regulated by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These pathways are important for many neuropsychiatric conditions that are sensitive to stress. However, the field lacks a reliable, clinically accessible stress-mitochondrial response paradigm to study the process in humans. MethodWe used an established psychological stress challenge combined with assaying salivary cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cf-mtDNA), thought to reflect heightened mitochondrial changes or disruptions, in 35 healthy individuals (21 males). We also explored if these stress-induced cf-mtDNA marker elevations were associated brain metabolites as measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), as well as high-resolution brain imaging based cortical thickness focusing on the mPFC. ResultsWe found that salivary cf-mtDNA was significant elevated immediately after the stress challenge (p=2.0x10-7) and gradually declined after. Exploratory causal analysis showed that this cf-mtDNA response was not primarily driven by cortisol response. Instead, individuals with higher baseline dACC lactate+ levels, thought to in part reflect mitochondrial dysfunctions, was significantly associated with the cf-mtDNA response (r=0.80, p<0.001). Higher mtDNA response was also significantly associated with thinner dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (r=-0.52, p=0.01). Age had a U-shape effect such that cf-mtDNA response trended lower in earlier adulthood but higher in older people, explaining 33.8% of the ct-mtDNA response variance (p=0.003). ConclusionThis stress challenge-salivary cf-mtDNA assay paradigm may offer a new, non-invasive approach to evaluate the stress-mitochondrial pathway functioning in aging, psychopharmacology, and neuropsychiatric conditions where psychological stress plays a role.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Blood and Neuronal Extracellular Vesicle Mitochondrial Disruptions in Schizophrenia

The high energy demand of the human brain obligates robust mitochondrial energy metabolism, while mitochondrial dysfunctions have been linked to neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). However, in vivo assessments that can directly inform brain mitochondrial functioning and its etiopathophysiological path to SSD remain difficult to obtain. We hypothesized that system and brain mitochondrial dysfunctions in SSD may be indexed by elevated cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cf-mtDNA) levels in the blood and in neuronal extracellular vesicles (nEVs). We also explored if these mtDNA marker elevations were associated brain metabolites as measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). We examined blood cf-mtDNA in 58 SSD patients and 33 healthy controls, followed by assessing nEV mtDNA and metabolite levels using MRS in a subgroup of patients and controls. We found that people with SSD had significantly elevated cf-mtDNA levels in both the blood (p=0.0002) and neuronal EVs (p=0.003) compared to controls. These mtDNA abnormalities can be linked back to brain lactate+ levels such that higher blood and nEV mtDNA levels were significantly associated with higher lactate+ levels measured at the anterior cingulate cortex (r=0.53, 0.53; p=0.008, 0.03, respectively) in SSD patients. Furthermore, higher developmental stress and trauma were significantly associated with higher cf-mtDNA levels in both the blood and neuronal EVs in SSD patients (r=0.29, 0.49; p=0.01, 0.03, respectively). In conclusion, if replicated and fully developed, blood and neuronal EV-based cell free mtDNA may provide a clinically accessible biomarker to more directly evaluate the mitochondrial hypothesis and the abnormal bioenergetics pathways in schizophrenia.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Normative and individual, non-normative intrinsic networks and the transition to impaired cognition

Despite their temporal lobe pathology, a significant subgroup of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients are able to maintain normative cognitive functioning. Here, we identify TLE patients with intact versus impaired cognitive profiles, and interrogate for the presence of both normative and highly individual intrinsic connectivity networks(ICN) - all towards understanding the transition from impaired to intact neurocognitive status. We retrospectively investigated data from 88 TLE patients and matched 91 healthy controls with resting-state functional MRI. Functional MRI data were decomposed using independent component analysis to obtain individualized ICNs. Here, we calculated the degree of match between individualized ICNs and canonical ICNs (e.g., Yeo et.al 17 resting-state network) and divided each participants ICNs into normative or non-normative status based on the degree of match. We found that the individualized networks matched the canonical networks less well in the cognitively impaired compared to the cognitively intact TLE patients. The cognitively impaired patients showed significant abnormalities in the profiles of both normative and non-normative networks, whereas the intact patients showed abnormalities only in non-normative networks. At the same time, we found normative networks held a strong, positive association with the neuropsychological measures, with this association negative in non-normative networks. We were able to provide the initial data demonstrating that significant cognitive deficits are associated with the status of highly-individual ICNs, making clear that the transition from intact to impaired cognitive status is not simply the result of disruption to normative brain networks.

neuroscience↗