W57. PATHWAYS TO RESILIENCE AND MENTAL-HEALTH [PARAM]: A NEURODEVELOPMENTAL COHORT FROM INDIA

• Published in: European neuropsychopharmacology 2024-10, Vol.87, p.132-132
• Main Authors: Benegal, Vivek, Chakrabarti, Amit, Holla, Bharath, Basu, Debasish, Sharma, Eesha, Purushottam, Meera, Mahadevan, Jayant, Goyal, Nishant, Nebhinani, Naresh, Basu, Aniruddha, Singh, Rajkumar Lenin, Khanra, Sourav, Viswanath, Biju
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0924-977X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.266

Adult psychiatric disorders rarely arise de novo, without any warning of childhood problems. Abnormalities underlying brain disorders may begin in early fetal life, and accrue over the lifespan, as a consequence of both program dependent (genomic variation) and experience dependent (exposomal impact) development. Exposure to a wide array of external and internal environmental influences strongly modulate gene expression, through intermediate mechanisms which are still poorly understood, including stress-inflammation, microglial activation and epigenetic modifications. This suggests the need for setting up of longitudinal studies spanning the neuro- “developmental” and “degenerative” trajectories from the ante-natal stage through to senescence, to track development trajectories and capture repeated multi-modal measures of: psychometry, brain functional and structural networks, genetic variation and epigenetic modifications, external (nutrition, psychosocial stress, neurotoxins) and internal (microbiomes) environmental exposures, intermediate processes including systemic and central stress-inflammatory processes. The Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalising and Addictions (cVEDA) [2016-20], funded by a collaborative grant from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Medical Research Council, UK, is an accelerated longitudinal cohort with a database and biobank derived from 9000 subjects, 6-23 yrs, comprising unaffected and 10% affected/family loading for externalizing and internalizing disorders, over 7 sites in India. Realising that the developmental window covered missed out on the critically important early life period, the ICMR funded a National Task Force project, Pathways to Resilience And Mental-Health [PARAM] to extend the cVEDA cohort to cover the period from antenatal to young adulthood The PARAM extended and enriched the existing neuro developmental cohort [N∼10,000] across 9 sites in India, to span: second trimester to 30 years, covering critical windows of brain development and acquisition of psychological abilities, during which majority of brain-behavior disorders manifest. The aim of the study is to examine the developmental origins of mental illnesses (+comorbid NCDs). A special focus is on the interactions of Genome X Exposome and the intermediate mechanisms involving Stress-Inflammation and epigenetic modification. We intend to continue the process of developing: 1] normative growth curves to explore effects of deviations