Trauma research is saving lives today.

Novel treatment emerges from bio-molecular understanding of trauma 

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after exposure to severe psychological trauma such as sexual assault or military combat. PTSD can cause debilitating flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety, which can severely impact quality of life. First responders, armed forces and—during the COVID-19 pandemic—front-line health care workers are all at high risk. Existing treatments have had limited efficacy. Many people suffering from PTSD have attempted suicide, died by suicide or exhibit violent behaviour.

A research team at CAMH, led by Dr. Fang Liu, Senior Scientist and Head of Molecular Neuroscience in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, is changing the trajectory of trauma’s impacts on mental health with their discovery of a protein complex that causes the symptoms of PTSD. Based on this discovery, they have also developed a peptide that can target and disrupt the protein complex, thereby preventing PTSD. 

In the early 2000s when Dr. Liu began taking a closer look at how two types of receptors in the brain known as a ‘receptor complex’ work together, she believed that they could play a role in mental illness. But when she submitted her first scientific paper on this paradigm-shifting concept, a famous international scientist sent her a one-sentence peer review commentary: “In general, I don’t believe it.”

Further research into this class of protein complex has shown that manipulating it can disrupt the formation of traumatic memories.

The hope is that a nasal spray containing these peptides could be developed and administered at the time of a traumatic event to prevent that specific event from being encoded as a memory in the brain and therefore prevent PTSD.

Some of Dr. Liu's current work is also looking at this protein complex as a biomarker for treatment response in a blood test, which could allow for faster and more precise measurements of the efficacy of an anti-psychotic drug, which in turn would allow for improvements in existing treatments.

“We are thrilled this CAMH-led discovery can potentially help millions of people put trauma behind them."