Understanding, predicting, and treating depression in pregnancy to improve mothers and offspring mental health outcomes

HappyMum旨在提高我们对怀孕期间抑郁症状发生的生物学机制以及干预措施的有效性的理解。它将询问一大批具有多种生物、医学、临床、社会人口学以及环境和生活方式数据的队列，以确定引发抑郁症状的最强有力的风险因素，但也是风险的调节因素。通过将独特的人类胎盘、绒毛和羊水样本以及动物模型结合在一起，HappyMum将提高对怀孕期间抑郁症状影响的神经生物学机制的理解，这些症状会导致胎儿环境的变化，塑造后代出现负面心理结果的风险。使用三个免费的啮齿动物模型将允许实现因果关系的证明，而创新的鱼类模型的存在将阐明特定于胎盘的机制，通过该机制，不利的母体疾病传播给后代，而不会产生补偿性产后母体护理的潜在令人困惑的缓解效果。这一知识将为开发新药、重新调整现有药物的用途或开发非药理干预措施确定新的目标。HappyMum还将开发一个数字平台，通过手机应用程序收集基于人工智能工具的数据，以及生物、临床、医疗、环境和生活方式数据，该应用程序将通过专用仪表盘与临床医生进行交互。这将允许对抑郁症状进行早期筛查、及时诊断、个性化治疗，并促进保护性生活方式态度。总体而言，快乐妈妈不仅将增加怀孕期间精神障碍领域的知识，还将改善这些妇女的福祉，为后代乃至整个社会提供前所未有的好处。

HappyMums is designed to improve our understanding on the biological mechanisms underlying the development of depressive symptoms in pregnancy, and the efficacy of interventions. It will interrogate a large collection of cohorts with multiple biological, medical, clinical, socio-demographic and environmental and lifestyle data to identify the most robust risk factors triggering depressive symptoms, but also moderators of the risk. By putting together unique human samples of placenta, chorionic villi and amniotic fluid, and animal models, HappyMums will improve the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms affected by depressive symptoms in pregnancy that lead to alterations in the foetal environment, shaping offspring risk for developing negative mental outcomes. The use of three complimentary rodent models will allow to achieve a proof of causality, and the presence of an innovative fish model will elucidate the mechanismsspecific to placenta by which adverse maternal conditions are transmitted to the offspring without the potentially confounding mitigating effects of compensatory postnatal maternal care. This knowledge will allow the identification of new targets for the development of novel medications, for the repurposing of existing medications or for the development of non-pharmacological interventions. HappyMums will also develop a digital platform where AI tools-based data can be collected, together with biological, clinical, medical, environmental and lifestyle data, through a mobile phone App that will be at the interface with clinicians via a dedicated dashboard. This will allow early screening of depressive symptoms, prompt diagnoses, personalized treatments, and the promotion of protective lifestyle attitudes. Overall, HappyMums will not only increase the knowledge in the field of mental disorders in pregnancy, but also improve the wellbeing of these women, providing unprecedented benefits also to the offspring and thus to society at large.