Epigenetics: Examining Female Adolescent Clock Genes to Glucocorticoids Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Main Authors: Villanueva, Ma. Leia Pauline M., Aguilar, Antontte Eilamor B., Mordeno, Elisha Mariel C., Sarabia, Camille Erika D.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: circadian rhythm, glucocorticoids, sleep, stress, pandemic
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/conf_shsrescon/2023/paper_fnh/9; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/conf_shsrescon/article/1805/viewcontent/PP_Aguilar_Mordeno_Sarabia_Villanueva___Ma._Leia_Pauline_Villanueva.docx.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on adolescents, necessitating changes to online learning and increased screen time. These alterations, coupled with an increase in stress, can disrupt sleep and circadian rhythms. Isolation has increased the worldwide need for digital devices. Teens' excessive screen usage increased by a factor of two because of academic and extracurricular obligations. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic had any significant effects on circadian rhythm alterations in glucocorticoids. Six healthy female participants weighing 25 𝑘𝑔/𝑚2 (mean = 21.7) and aged 18±1 were divided into 2 groups and underwent a 3-day experiment that encompassed a pandemic and a pre-pandemic lifestyle. A 24-hour urine collection with the analysis techniques of UV-Vis spectroscopy. The patterns from the groups’ respective calibration curves of urine were this distinct. Peak changes from the pandemic-controlled outbreak were significant. A follow-up chromatographic comparison of pure cortisol with one participant from each group under high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was also performed. The observation suggests it is plausible that target glucocorticoids such as cortisol, melatonin, and estradiol fluctuate during COVID-19. More HPLC testing can accurately find glucocorticoid biomarkers of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s) for cortisol, estrone-3-glucuronide (E3G), and the NR3c1 gene, as well as other hormones linked to the event's circadian rhythms. This can further open discussions about DNA methylation. Physiological studies of neuroscience, endocrinology, and genetics performed on these groups indicated that a pandemic lifestyle might have a significant effect on glucocorticoids in adolescent women.