Tet1 Genes Are A "Knock-out"

Hi there guys! Welcome back to my psychological blog.

Apologies for the length of time it took me to write a new blog post, I have been quite busy studying for my SATs which I sat last weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to have a few more blog posts soon.

Today I'm just talking a bit about something I read in the newspaper a little while ago which is a study done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology regarding the Tet1 gene.

Scientists were studying the neuronal ten-eleven translocation (Tet) enzymes. These proteins are found in the brain along with 5hmC (5-hydroxymethylcytosine). However, there is little known about the functions they perform.

The study was done on mice, half of which had the tet1 gene, while the others had theirs "knocked out" (the group called Tet1KO). The group that had their tet1 gene knocked out retained their memories, while the group that retained their tet1 gene, replaced memories with new information after a period of time.

The method of the study was to have a group of mice with the tet1 gene, and a control group without the tet1 gene. Each was subjected to a cage which gave them a light electrical shock. This would then instil a fear of the cage in the mice. Then, after a period of time, the mice were reintroduced to the cage. The control group still held their fear of the cage. However, the group with an active tet1 gene, showed no fear of the cage. This was due to the memory of being shocked getting replaced by new information. This is how memory extinction was demonstrated. This is a cognitive process that we possess, however scientists believe that manipulation of the gene can help stimulate the extinction of unwanted memories.

If that made no sense to anyone, it essentially means that with stimulation of the tet1 gene, due to its power over a small group of genes that are part of the process of forgetting or replacing memories,  you could rewrite bad memories with new information.

For all you science nerds, here is a link to the full study published in the Neuron Journal:

 http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0896627313007149/1-s2.0-S0896627313007149-main.pdf?_tid=a9a77af6-3037-11e3-b997-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1381250317_8df7e3b08264c0415dc3c4aeb6720d4c

The tet1 gene manipulates the levels of manipulation that can be done to a gene. High levels prevent the gene from being expressed, which is how the control group were "knocked out", while low levels allow the genes to stay active. This manipulation of genes showed significant alteration in both the hippocampus and cortex of the brain, which are areas focusing mainly on learning and memory.

The interesting thing from a psychological point of view is that if this is a neurological structure that can be manipulated, it could be a form of treatment for those suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and addiction.

Further studies are also being done to look for artificial ways to stimulate the tet1 gene in order to increase memory extinction so as to be used as a treatment for the likes of clinical disorders mentioned above. They are also looking at the consequences of all tet genes being removed.

I think it would be very interesting to see if manipulation of the gene could help patients with PTSD or addiction "rewrite" old memories, and whether or not it could be artificially enhanced to create some kind of drug to help patients. Also, the study found that there were no symptoms of depression or any implications to mental or physical health, which is a big plus for the study continuing forward.

Well that's it for today folks! I've jumped completely from one spectrum to the other, drifting from the arts end of psychology with my psychoanalytic post, to the more scientific side with slight digression into neurology.

My next blog post I hope to be a little bit of information about a bit of researching I did in my carrying out research in psychology lecture this week. It is to do with neurological tests and their effectiveness as an aid to diagnosing schizophrenia and affective diorders (bipolar disorder and unipolar depression). If you're noticing a trend in neuropsychology, I'm afraid I am being a bit biased. It is the field in psychology I am most intrigued by along with clinical psychology, so there probably will be quite a few posts about those areas.
I will try touch off as many areas of psychology that I can to not only keep this blog broad and interesting, but also to further my own knowledge of what specific fields of psychology have to offer!

I hope you liked this post, and that you'll stick around for the next one.
Enjoy your week readers!

Jen