Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Seminar Series:  
Intergenerational Trauma: Two-hit Mechanism and Early Preventive Interventions

Please join the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in a research seminar featuring UC Irvine Associate Professor, Dr. Amal Alachkar.

Abstract:

The deleterious impacts of existential trauma during pregnancy are doubled as they affect the mental health of two generations (the mothers’ and the unborn offspring). In my lab we try to establish early biomarkers for identifying individuals at risk, and for predicting novel treatment targets at the earliest practicable ages. Our studies show that trauma exposure in mice during pregnancy induces in the offspring social deficits and depressive-like behavior through divergent and convergent mechanisms of both in utero and early-life parenting environments. Molecular mechanisms of intergenerational trauma transmission involve stress- and hypoxia-response energy pathways, especially mitochondrial ATP production, and epigenetic processes. We establish 2-Hydroxyglutaric acid as an early predictive biomarker for trauma-induced behavioral deficits. Early but not late pharmacological interventions with acetyl-L-carnitine supplementation, produces long-lasting protection against the behavioral deficits associated with intergenerational trauma.