7T MRS in depression associated with MetS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Translating potential neuroimaging biomarkers into clinics: fingerprinting mood disorders related to metabolic syndrome (MetS)
IRAS ID
313113
Contact name
Antoine Cherix
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Research Governance, Ethics and Assurance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Mood disorders, and in particular depression, are a major burden on society and improving therapeutic strategies requires to better characterize their underlying pathophysiology and to identify reliable biological markers. Insulin resistance has been recently put forward as a potential link between metabolic deregulations, typically observed in metabolic syndrome (MetS), and depression. MetS has a high co-occurrence with depression and could thus represent an etiological factor for a large subset of patients with mood disorders. The goal of this project is to study how insulin signalling regulates brain metabolic homeostasis and impacts depressive behaviour. By combining neuroimaging and behavioural measurements in humans, this project aims at identifying translatable neuroimaging markers based on preclinical findings in mice. In particular, this project focuses on how magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) can be exploited to provide useful imaging markers indicative of neuroenergetic impairments in brain structures of depressed patients.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
22/WA/0243
Date of REC Opinion
15 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion