Do Defective Immune System-Mediated Myelination Processes Increase Postpartum Psychosis Risk?

Dazzan, Paola; Fusté, Montserrat; Davies, William

doi:10.1016/j.molmed.2018.09.002

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 89 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In summary, in women at risk of PP, an altered response to estrogen levels could lead to a disruption in dopamine signalling which, if not compensated through the modulation of the executive network function, would result in an overactive salience network mediating the onset of symptoms in the postpartum. This different response to dopamine signalling may be due to several factors including genetic and environmental factors and their interplay 43 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered dynamics of the prefrontal networks are associated with the risk for postpartum psychosis: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Postpartum psychosis (PP) is a severe mental disorder that affects women in the first few weeks after delivery. To date there are no biomarkers that distinguish which women at risk (AR) develop a significant psychiatric relapse postpartum. While altered brain connectivity may contribute to the risk for psychoses unrelated to the puerperium, this remains unexplored in PP. We followed up 32 AR and 27 healthy (HC) women from pregnancy to 8-week postpartum. At this point, we classified women as AR-unwell (n = 15) if they had developed a psychiatric relapse meeting DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, or impacting on daily functioning and requiring treatment, or AR-well (n = 17) if they remained asymptomatic. Women also underwent an fMRI scan at rest and during an emotional-processing task, to study within- and between-networks functional connectivity. Women AR, and specifically those in the AR-well group, showed increased resting connectivity within an executive network compared to HC. During the execution of the emotional task, women AR also showed decreased connectivity in the executive network, and altered emotional load-dependent connectivity between executive, salience, and default-mode networks. AR-unwell women particularly showed increased salience network-dependent modulation of the default-mode and executive network relative to AR-well, who showed greater executive network-dependent modulation of the salience network. Our finding that the executive network and its interplay with other brain networks implicated in goal-directed behavior are intrinsically altered suggest that they could be considered neural phenotypes for postpartum psychosis and help advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disorder.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered dynamics of the prefrontal networks are associated with the risk for postpartum psychosis: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Work by Dombrowki and colleagues has shown that CCN3 is secreted by Tregs, and mediates brain (re)myelination processes in mammals (12). On the basis of this finding, we have proposed that perturbations in the Treg-CCN3-(re)myelination axis may confer vulnerability to PP (65). The high expression of CCN3 in the temporal cortex, and adjacent structures, may potentially explain the myelination abnormalities seen here in patients with PP.…”

Section: The Cellular Communication Network (Ccn) Factor Gene Familymentioning

confidence: 97%

An Analysis of Cellular Communication Network Factor Proteins as Candidate Mediators of Postpartum Psychosis Risk

Davies

2019

Front. Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Postpartum (or puerperal) psychosis (PP) is a severe psychiatric condition associated with hallucinations, delusions, cognitive disorganization, and mood problems, which affects approximately 1–2 out of every 1,000 mothers shortly after childbirth. While the risk factors for, and co-morbidities of, PP are relatively well-defined, currently, the pathophysiology underlying the disorder is very poorly-specified. Here, I argue, on the basis of multiple lines of new evidence, that altered expression of the Cellular Communication Network (CCN) factor proteins (and of the heterodimerizing CCN2 and CCN3 proteins in particular), may be associated with, and possibly causal for, increased PP risk. Future preclinical and clinical studies should aim to test this hypothesis as empirical support for it would provide much-needed clues regarding the biological substrates of PP, and could point to predictive biomarkers for the condition.

show abstract

“…(2014) ). While the exact mechanisms underlying the association between immune dysregulation and PP remain unclear, one hypothesis recently proposed by members of our group is that immune system involvement in PP may occur through immune system-mediated myelination processes, namely disturbances in the Treg–CCN3 protein–(re)myelination axis ( Dazzan et al., 2018 ). Specifically, the authors propose that women at risk of PP are more likely than healthy women to show disturbances in Treg activity and/or abundance, which in turn could be associated with altered CCN3 protein expression and subsequently with reduced (re)myelination in cortical and limbic brain regions ( Dazzan et al., 2018 ).…”

Section: Mechanisms Underlying the Association Between Immune System Dysregulation And Ppmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the immune system in postpartum psychosis

Hazelgrove

2021

Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Postpartum psychosis is the most severe psychiatric disorder associated with childbirth. The risk is particularly high for women with a history of bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder, or those who have suffered a previous episode of postpartum psychosis. However, the aetiology of the illness remains unclear. Pregnancy and the early postpartum are times of significant immunological change. Furthermore, alterations to the immune system have been implicated in the onset and course of various psychopathologies, both related and unrelated to childbirth. Emerging evidence, from studies on immune related disorders, immune cells and inflammatory markers, suggests that the immune system might also be involved in the pathophysiology of postpartum psychosis. Furthermore, recent research has also begun to explore the potential mechanisms underlying immune dysfunction in postpartum psychosis (e.g., disturbances in the Treg–CCN3 protein–(re)myelination axis). Nevertheless, more research is required to understand whether immune dysfunction is a cause or consequence of postpartum psychosis and to clarify the exact mechanisms involved. The aim of this short review is to present the current findings on immune system dysregulation in postpartum psychosis, discuss possible mechanisms underlying the association, highlight potential challenges and confounders and provide suggestions for future research.

show abstract

Do Defective Immune System-Mediated Myelination Processes Increase Postpartum Psychosis Risk?

Cited by 17 publications

References 89 publications

Altered dynamics of the prefrontal networks are associated with the risk for postpartum psychosis: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Altered dynamics of the prefrontal networks are associated with the risk for postpartum psychosis: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

An Analysis of Cellular Communication Network Factor Proteins as Candidate Mediators of Postpartum Psychosis Risk

The role of the immune system in postpartum psychosis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About