Understanding how the brain “predicts” the future to create tailor-made drugs against psychotic and mood disorders.
What happens in the brain when you suffer from psychosis or a mood disorder such as depression? The researchers of the sub-project (Spoke 5) dedicated to psychopharmacology and led by Luigi Grassi of the University of Ferrara are trying to answer this question. Their work aims to identify “biomarkers” for faster diagnoses and new drug targets. A promising strategy is “repositioning”, i.e. the use of already known medicines for other purposes: an approach that allows the development of new treatments in a short time and with very low costs.
The goal is personalized precision psychiatry, from diagnosis to therapy. «For example, we are studying the evolution of juvenile-onset psychotic and mood disorders», explains Grassi. “The course changes a lot depending on many variables, from the use of substances to stressful life events: by integrating biological and clinical data and monitoring them over time we can better understand how the disease will evolve.”
Researchers have discovered a deficit in “predictive coding” in disorders such as schizophrenia. What is it about? It is our brain’s fundamental ability to predict what is about to happen, based on past experiences. This sort of mental “autopilot” keeps us ready to react. Its dysfunction is linked to the severity of the symptoms and could become a key to better diagnoses and tailored therapies, “also taking into account genetics”, observes Grassi. “Differences in genes involved in the metabolism of antidepressant drugs, for example, can play a role in reducing their effectiveness or favoring the appearance of side effects: being able to understand with a genetic test who will respond better to treatments will mean making them much more effective.”
