The project is financially endowed with 497,188 euros by the Prometheus program of the Valencian Government for research of excellence. The research seeks to better understand the response to stress during adolescence, a critical period that marks mental health in adults, and thus offer better tools to regulate it and prevent it from leading to other problems such as depression and drug addiction, in which stress appears as one of the main causes.

“One of the strengths of this study is the research in animals of both genders, since there are still very few studies in the field of neuroscience that analyse the responses of female animals. This type of study will be able to characterise the neuroinflammatory response as a mediator of the development of mental illness”, José Minarro highlighted.

The project, which will run until 2025, will develop a series of preclinical studies in which it is intended to evaluate the response of adolescent animals to social stress. This will allow a better understanding of the mechanisms that can be used to enhance a resilient response to stress, which will be studied in a second part of the project (Rodríguez-Arias et al., 2017; Reguilon et al., 2022).

Participating in this study are Carmen Arenas, Carmen Manzanedo and Sandra Montagud, professors in the Department of Psychobiology at the UV. María Isabel Colado (Complutense University of Madrid), Fernando Rodríguez de Fonseca (Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga) and Antonio Verdejo-García (Monash University, Melbourne Australia) also collaborate in it.

The Prometheus project gives grants to R&D&i groups of excellence in the Valencian Community and aims to enhance their international projection and knowledge transfer. The projects are carried out by teams led by one or two main scientists, have a maximum duration of four years and have a maximum amount of 150,000 euros per year.

Articles:

- Rodríguez-Arias M., Montagud-Romero S., Rubio-Araiz A., Aguilar M. A., Martín-García E, Cabrera R., Maldonado R., Porcu F., Colado M. I., Miñarro J. «Effects of repeated social defeat on adolescent mice on cocaine-induced CPP and self-administration in adulthood: integrity of the blood-brain barrier». Addict Biol. 2017 Jan; 22(1):129-141. doi: 10.1111/adb.12301.

- Reguilón M. D., Ballestín R., Miñarro J., Rodríguez-Arias M. «Resilience to social defeat stress in adolescent male mice». Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2022 Dec 20;119:110591. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2022.110591.

Photo caption: University of Valencia team (from left to right). Top row: Macarena Gonzalez, Sandra Montagud and Tomás Aledón. Centre: José Miñarro, Marta Rodríguez, Carmen Arenas and Carmen Manzanedo. Below: Francisco Rodenas, Irene Pérez and Marina Reguilón.