Dr. Dario Lucas Helbing of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Jena University Hospital—a site of the German Center for Mental Health (DZPG)—has secured funding in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Helen Morrison of the Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena. The research project “Identification and Validation of Causal Multimodal Molecular Signaling Pathways in the Spectrum of Depression and Neuropsychiatric Post-COVID Syndrome” will receive 25,000 euros in funding from the LIFE “Connect” Initiative at Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
What links depression and neuropsychiatric post-COVID syndrome at the molecular level?
This is the question addressed by the current research project.
Fatigue, cognitive impairments, and depressive symptoms are among the most debilitating complaints in both neuropsychiatric post-COVID syndrome and depressive disorders. The pronounced symptomatic overlaps suggest common biological mechanisms, the molecular basis of which, however, has so far been insufficiently understood.
The project led by Dr. Dario Lucas Helbing and Prof. Dr. Helen Morrison aims to better decipher these mechanisms using an innovative multimodal research approach. To this end, metabolomic and proteomic profiles from healthy control subjects as well as from patients with depression and neuropsychiatric post-COVID syndrome will be analyzed. In this way, both common and disease-specific molecular signatures are to be identified, and new molecular biotypes characterized.
Furthermore, the project will investigate how these molecular patterns correlate with aging processes, clinical symptoms, and changes in brain structure. The findings will then be further investigated in experimental models using a reverse-translation approach to better understand causal pathophysiological mechanisms.
The long-term goal is to identify new targets for the development of targeted therapies and thereby sustainably improve the treatment of fatigue, cognitive impairments, and affective symptoms.
LIFE “Connect” funding enables the development of scientific projects that have the potential to successfully secure third-party funding. New collaborations between researchers from different groups, institutes, and disciplines will be established to stimulate research at the highest level.
Read more about LIFE “Connect” funding program here.