ArticleTranslational psychiatry2017
Gene expression associated with PTSD in World Trade Center responders: An RNA sequencing study.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparing the molecular correlates of PTSD in first responders and the broader molecular PTSD literature: a hybrid review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Altered gene expression and PTSD symptom dimensions in World Trade Center responders.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Dynamic immune and metabolic dysregulation in women with post-traumatic stress disorder: Longitudinal transcriptomic insights following sexual assault.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Mechanistic signatures of comorbid PTSD with cognitive impairment implicate cortisol-induced neural toxicity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- A single glucocorticoid response element regulates sociability in a sex-specific manner.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Causal relationship between inflammatory cytokines and posttraumatic stress disorder: a Mendelian randomization study and potential mechanism analysis.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Review
- Childhood trauma cortisol and immune cell glucocorticoid transcript levels are associated with increased risk for suicidality in adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Resveratrol: Harnessing Nature's Potential for Chronic Pain Relief.Aging and disease · 2025Review
- Small Nucleolar RNAs and the Brain: Growing Evidence Supporting Their Role in Psychiatric Disorders.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Review
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: evolving conceptualization and evidence, and future research directions.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2025Article
- Identifying molecular signatures of post-traumatic stress disorder vulnerability and progression in a longitudinal study: a study protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mapping the epigenomic landscape of post-traumatic stress disorder in human cortical neurons.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Translational bioinformatics and data science for biomarker discovery in mental health: an analytical review.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2024Review
- Survival analysis and clinicopathological features of patients with stage IA lung adenocarcinoma.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Decreased mononuclear cell NR3C1 SKA2 and FKPB5 expression levels among adult survivors of suicide bombing terror attacks in childhood are associated with the development of PTSD.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
- Identifying genetic loci that are associated with changes in gene expression in PTSD in a South African cohort.Journal of neurochemistry · 2023Article
- Characterizing the landscape of gene expression variance in humans.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Glial suppression and post-traumatic stress disorder: A cross-sectional study of 1,520 world trade center responders.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Candidate biomarkers in psychiatric disorders: state of the field.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The gene expression approach has provided promising insights into the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, few studies used hypothesis-free transcriptome-wide approach to comprehensively understand gene expression underpinning PTSD. A transcriptome-wide expression study using RNA sequencing of whole blood was conducted in 324 World Trade Center responders (201 with never, 81 current, 42 past PTSD). Samples from current and never PTSD reponders were randomly split to form discovery (N = 195) and replication (N = 87) cohorts. Differentially expressed genes were used in pathway analysis and to create a polygenic expression score. There were 448 differentially expressed genes in the discovery cohort, of which 99 remained significant in the replication cohort, including FKBP5, which was found to be up-regulated in current PTSD regardless of the genotypes. Several enriched biological pathways were found, including glucocorticoid receptor signaling and immunity-related pathways, but these pathways did not survive FDR correction. The polygenic expression score computed by aggregating 30 differentially expressed genes using the elastic net algorithm achieved sensitivity/specificity of 0.917/0.508, respectively for identifying current PTSD in the replication cohort. Polygenic scores were similar in current and past PTSD, with both groups scoring higher than trauma-exposed controls without any history of PTSD. Together with the pathway analysis results, these findings point to HPA-axis and immune dysregulation as key biological processes underpinning PTSD. A novel polygenic expression aggregate that differentiates PTSD patients from trauma-exposed controls might be a useful screening tool for research and clinical practice, if replicated in other populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.