Telomere shortening in late‐life depression: A potential marker of depression severity
22 Citations•2021•
Ana Paula Mendes-Silva, E. Vieira, Gabriela Xavier
Brain and Behavior
It is found that older adults with LLD have shorter telomere than healthy controls, especially those with a more severe depressive episode, which indicates that these individuals may be at higher risk of age-associated adverse outcomes linked to depression.
Abstract
Telomeres are structures at the extremity of chromosomes that prevents genomic instability, and its shortening seems to be a hallmark of cellular aging. Past studies have shown contradictory results of telomere length (TL) in major depression, and are a few studies in late‐life depression (LLD). This explores the association between TL as a molecular marker of aging and diagnosis of LLD, the severity of depressive symptoms, and cognitive performance in older adults.