EMPATHY – EMPATHY

Eating disorders are neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions. Despite their individual and socioeconomic burden, the etiology of eating disorders is still poorly understood and suitable interventions are lacking.
Alterations of brain development during the prenatal and perinatal periods, caused by adverse maternal factors, such as unhealthy diet and obesity, increase the risk of eating disorders. In particular, maternal high- fat diet affects the hypothalamus, the brain region involved in regulation of feeding. Therefore, we aim to define how maternal metabolic programming during the perinatal period disturbs the microglia-neuron interactions in the hypothalamus, increasing the risk of eating disorders in the offspring. We will employ both exploratory and hypothesis-driven approaches using a variety of models ranging from stem cell-derived hypothalamic-like neurons and microglia as well as brain organotypic cultures, to Drosophila and mouse models. Finally, we will translationally validate the results obtained in animal models by examining the lipids and non-coding RNAs in human milk samples as plausible communication factors between body and brain.
Altogether, this interdisciplinary consortium will define molecular and cellular mechanisms of the development of eating disorders, contributing to our understanding of their etiology and proposing possible targets as well as timing for risk-mitigating interventions.