Since 2007 the SHINE Initiative has partnered with the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation of New York to award annual grants to Massachusetts-based researchers who are pursuing advances in brain and behavior disorders.
In 2008 the SHINE Initiative awarded a research grant to Dr. Heather Brenhouse. She is an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard University and is an assistant neuroscientist at McLean Hospital, Belmont. Dr. Brenhouse initially investigated the effect of early life stressors on the development of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. A second grant awarded by the SHINE Initiative and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation in December 2011 will support Dr. Brenhouse’s continued research into controlling neuroinflammation of the brain as a result of early life stress.
“I’ve been enamored of the brain since I began my schooling. The brain is a constantly changing organ, from infancy through adulthood,” is how Dr. Heather Brenhouse explains her passion for brain research.
She notes that the human immune system is influenced by stress, pointing to ulcers as an example. “A hypothesis is that early life stress can manifest itself later in life,” and that early developmental “insults” can cause dysfunction within parvalbumin-containing interneurons in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The neuropsychiatric disorders associated with such dysfunction might involve neuroinflammatory processes.
“It is possible that the adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to inflammation, and inflammation could be instigated by early stressful experiences,” Dr. Brenhouse writes in a progress report for the SHINE Initiative. “The resulting damage during adolescence could lead to depression, schizophrenia, and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
The research in which Dr. Brenhouse has immersed herself in recent years is attempting to demonstrate the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory treatment – specifically Cyclooxygenase-2 (known as COX-2), as a preventive pharmacological intervention for mental illness in adolescents and young adults. “I’m not looking to drug kids, but whether through pharmacological or behavioral adjustments, we want to control the effect of stress on these young people.”
Dr. Brenhouse’s most current research will pursue understanding of the developmental mechanisms controlling neuroinflammation after early life stress. “This will allow us to determine critical periods of sensitivity to stress, enrichment and treatment, with the goal of successful treatment strategies for at at-risk traumatized children,” Br. Brenhouse concludes.
