Allan Pulliam

Introduction. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a traumatic event such as exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.¹ DSM V defines PTSD as avoidance, intrusion, negative alterations in cognition or mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity for more than one month.¹ 70.4% of the global population is exposed to trauma and 3.9% develop PTSD.² Currently, treatment in the United States consists of the FDA-approved SSRIs paroxetine or sertraline in conjunction with psychotherapy; however, many studies have found that this is treatment regimen is not effective for most patients.³ One potential target is the immune system – specifically, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis – as individuals with PTSD expressed elevated proinflammatory molecules.³ Methods. Rodent models were used to study the effects of eliminating various elements of the HPA axis on behavior and marker molecules. Rodents would undergo a procedure, such as a splenectomy, or would be given an antagonist agent that blocked a certain pathway. Through this process, the roles of several pathways were tested, including norepinephrine^4,5, cortisol^4,7, adrenal glands⁸,and FKBP5 chaperone protein⁶. Results. Studies showed that norepinephrine played an important role in stress response after 21 days, but not after 7 days.⁴ In contrast, cortisol was found to have a bigger role in stress response after 7 days, but not after 21 days.⁴ A similar study found that a history of social defeat in mice resulted in a sensitized norepinephrine response and a habituated corticosterone response, further supporting that the initial stress response is mediated by glucocorticoids whereas later effects are mediated by norepinephrine.⁵ Adrenalectomized mice that did not have the ability to produce cortisol were found to have fewer circulating monocytes; this could be attributed to the fact that monocytes are recruited by microglial cells, which need cortisol to be activated.⁷ Wild-type mice exposed to stress were found to have significantly thinner zona fasciculata, which is where cortisol is produced.⁸ In another study, stress-exposed mice were found to have downregulated FKBP5 in the hypothalamus, indicating that not enough cortisol was bound to glucocorticoid receptors to allow FKBP5 to be released.⁶ Conclusion. In PTSD, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is dysregulated, resulting in low levels of cortisol and an immune system that is in a proinflammatory state. There are several components of the HPA axis that could serve as potential targets for future therapy of PTSD, including glucocorticoid/beta-adrenergic receptors, chaperone proteins, cortisol, and norepinephrine. Recently, more studies have been conducted to test the efficacy of steroid injections after a traumatic event to prevent development of PTSD. This is a promising avenue of research that could potentially reveal a more efficacious treatment for PTSD than currently existing therapeutics.

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