Marianne L. Seney, PhD

  • Associate Professor, Psychiatry

Phone

412-624-3072

E-mail

seneyml@upmc.edu

Personal Website

https://www.seneylab.pitt.edu

Education & Training

PhD, University of Massachusetts (2009)

Campus Address

Bridgeside Point II, Suite 231

One-Line Research Description

Molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, with a focus on how sex and/or circadian rhythms influence risk and clinical phenotypes

a.  Major depressive disorder is a devastating illness and leading cause of disability worldwide. Differences between men and women in the etiology and pathology of depression likely impact symptomatology, severity, and prevalence. Despite these well- known sex differences in depression prevalence and symptomatology, few studies have focused on determining whether sex differences exist in the brain. The overall research program of the Seney Laboratory is twofold. The first aim is to characterize the primary pathology of depression using human postmortem brain resources, with a specific focus on sex-specific immune and synaptic pathologies. The second aim is to use relevant mouse models to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying the sex differences observed in humans with depression. Work in the Seney Lab combines molecular, cellular, and behavioral approaches, with the overall goal of helping to develop more effective, and potentially sex-specific treatments for depression.

 

b.  Abnormal circadian rhythms are a prominent and pervasive endophenotype of several psychiatric, neurological, and addiction disorders. However, very little is known about how circadian rhythms are disrupted at the molecular level in the brains of these patients. Our laboratory uses novel biostatistical methods to examine of molecular rhythms in the human postmortem brain, and importantly, allows us to ask whether rhythm abnormalities exist in subjects with brain disorders. The laboratory also uses mouse models to examine whether disruption of brain molecular rhythms cause brain disorder-relevant phenotypes. This knowledge has the potential to open novel treatment avenues via pharmacological targeting of these molecular rhythms.

Representative Publications

Seney ML, Kim S, Glausier JR, Hildebrand MA, Xue X, Zong W, Wang J, Shelton MA, Phan BN, Srinivasan C, Pfenning AR, Tseng GC Lewis DA, Freyberg Z, Logan RW. Transcriptional alterations in opioid use disorder reveal an interplay between neuroinflammation and synaptic remodeling. Biol Psychiatry. 2021; Jun 12:S0006-3223(21)01369-X. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.06.007. Pubmed PMID: 34380600.

Logan RW, Xue Xiangning, Ketchesin KD, Hoffman G, Roussos P, Tseng G, McClung CA, Seney ML. Sex differences in molecular rhythms in the human cortex. Biol Psychiatry. 2021; Mar 8;S0006-3223(21)01110-0. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.03.005. Pubmed PMID: 33934884.

Paden W, Barko K, Puralewski R, Cahill KM, Huo Z, Shelton MA, Tseng GC, Logan RW, Seney ML. Sex differences in adult mood and in stress-induced transcriptional coherence across mesocorticolimbic circuitry. Transl Psychiatry. 2020;10(1):59. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-0742-9. PubMed PMID: 32066699. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7026087.

Seney ML, Cahill K, Enwright JF 3rd, Logan RW, Huo Z, Zong W, Tseng G, McClung CA. Diurnal rhythms in gene expression in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. Nat Commun. 2019 Aug 9;10(1):3355. PMID: 31399567.

Seney ML, Huo Z, Cahill K, French L, Puralewski R, Zhang J, Logan RW, Tseng G, Lewis DA, Sibille E. Opposite molecular signatures of depression in men and women. Biol Psychiatry. 2018;84(1):18-27. Epub 2018/02/19. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.01.017. PubMed PMID: 29548746. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6014892.

Seney ML, Huo Z, Cahill K, French L, Puralewski R, Zhang J, Logan RW, Tseng G, Lewis DA, Sibille E. Opposite molecular signatures of depression in men and women. Biol Psychiatry. 2018

Puralewski R, Vasilakis G, Seney ML. Sex-related factors influence expression of mood-related genes in the basolateral amygdala differentially depending on age and stress exposure. Biol Sex Differ. 2016;7:50. PMID: 27660699.

Seney ML, Tripp A, McCune S, Lewis DA, Sibille E. Laminar and cellular analyses of reduced somatostatin gene expression in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in major depression. Neurobiol Dis. 2015 Jan;73:213-9. PMID: 25315685.

Seney ML, Chang LC, Oh H, Wang X, Tseng GC, Lewis DA, Sibille E. The role of genetic sex in affect regulation and expression of GABA-related genes across species. Front Psychiatry. 2013;4:104. PMID: 24062698.