Plain English

Species survival depends on ability to respond to environmental challenges. We are trying to dissect the role(s) of a group of hormones, the family of stress-peptides, conserved through evolution that translate environmental information and initiate adaptive mechanisms to stressors. These hormones integrate psychological, behavioural and biological responses in a wide variety of disease settings. Our main focus is the mother-embryo communication; we want to understand how cell receptors and intracellular signals enable stress hormones to influence the maternal environment and fetal development that programs offspring susceptibility to disease and can have sustained effects across the lifespan. Ultimately, we want to identify suitable molecular sensors and test in the clinical setting biomarkers (both genetic and biochemical) to detect system imbalances and maladaptive responses crucial for pregnancy outcomes and offspring health, in order to help us design appropriate personalized treatments.

Technical Summary

Stress hormones and homeostatic adaptive responses in feto-maternal pathophysiology

The overarching aim of our research programme is to elucidate how stress hormones of the Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) endocrine system control feto-maternal symbiosis and how maternal disease can induce maladaptive responses that compromise health of mother and fetus development. In vertebrates the stress hormone system, which is conserved across evolution, is critical for organism survival by driving homeostatic adaptive mechanisms to environmental changes and regulating developmental plasticity. The main focus of our research is the corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH), considered as the “first mediator” of the stress response. CRH is expressed in the placenta of higher primates only, and is thought to play important roles in normal pregnancy and labour, by regulating maternal and fetal adaptive responses. This system is also important in conditions associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). We explore basic and clinical translational aspects of CRH actions in feto-maternal pathophysiology. Our fundamental studies aiming at dissecting molecular signaling mechanisms of the CRH receptors, especially mechanisms controlling a range of biological processes such as energy homeostasis, development of inflammatory responses and malignant transformation of cells leading to uncontrolled cell growth and cancer. We are particularly interested in pre- and post-transcriptional modifications such as mRNA splicing and protein phosphorylation and glycosylation that regulate cell responsiveness to CRH. We recently identified the presence of such a mechanism in breast cancer that allows cells to limit CRH actions by enhancing expression of aberrant CRH receptor variants.

In parallel translational studies, we investigate the molecular and biochemical signatures of HPA axis activity in order to understand the biological and genetic underpinnings of mood disorders such as depression developed during pregnancy and postpartum. We employ multidisciplinary approaches linking disease phenotype with hormonal and epigenetic biomarkers using advanced statistical methodologies and bioinformatics in order to develop algorithm-based multi-analyte clinical diagnostic tools.