The Research
The impact can be incredible: on one hand, WISH research greatly helps us in diagnosing and understanding the possible long-term damage caused by intimate partner violence.
On the other hand, there’s also an important factor: targeted therapies and drugs could be developed to help women in this clinical condition.
The Situation Today
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among women globally, with documented impacts on physical and mental health. Currently, the healthcare guidelines for managing IPV victims in Italy and Europe are limited to the emergency care context, focusing on treating traumatic injuries and ensuring victims’ immediate safety.
There is no structured long-term health surveillance program, nor specific interventions that recognize IPV as a risk factor for chronic diseases.
Beyond the traumatic injuries caused by physical violence, IPV can lead to conditions such as migraine, pelvic pain, anxiety disorders, depression, insomnia, ulcers, and cardiovascular diseases.
The Objectives
- Refine an experimental model to study IPV.
- Explore the molecular mechanisms of IPV-induced damage at the brain, cardiac, and systemic levels.
- Test potential therapeutic, behavioral, and pharmacological interventions.
- Validate the findings from the animal model in women who have experienced IPV.
- Disseminate the acquired knowledge to promote training and prevention.
WISH Preclinical Research
An innovative medical research project, started in the United States at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and now conducted by the University of Padua, within the Department of Biomedical Sciences research group, led by Dr. Jacopo Agrimi and Prof. Nazareno Paolocci.
Understanding How Violence Imprints Itself in the Body
When we talk about IPV, we immediately think of visible wounds. But some consequences manifest over years within the body: they hide in tissues, molecular signals, heartbeats, and brain connections. WISH Preclinical Research was created to investigate exactly this: how chronic relational stress, experienced by the female body in violent contexts, turns into real, lasting, and measurable biological damage.
To do this, we use a murine experimental model that reproduces certain aspects of IPV, particularly prolonged exposure to violent, controlling, and unpredictable behavior. While it cannot capture the full complexity of the human experience, this model provides a crucial starting point for understanding what happens in the female body when violence becomes daily life.
The results already published (Agrimi et al., iScience 2024) show that females exposed to this type of stress develop significant brain alterations: loss of neurons in the hippocampus, reduced neurogenesis, increased apoptosis, and anxiety-like behaviors. These effects are accompanied by a marked reduction in ERβ activity, the estrogen receptor, and in BDNF, a key molecule for brain plasticity.
In particular, ERβ downregulation induced by violence can mimic a hormonal condition similar to premature menopause, opening a window of risk for estrogen-dependent cancers. WISH explores this hypothesis through an integrated approach, revealing a previously neglected oncological dimension of gender-based violence.
Additional preliminary observations indicate alterations at the cardiac level: in female mice subjected to prolonged violence, signs of contractile dysfunction and rhythm modifications have been observed. We are studying this regulatory axis using advanced EEG/ECG techniques to understand whether violence disrupts the delicate balance between emotions, stress, and physiological regulation.
Our goal is clear: to reconstruct the hidden mechanisms through which IPV imprints itself on the body. Because only by understanding the biological nature of violence can we provide survivors with new, effective, and truly targeted therapeutic responses.
WISH Human Research
This project would represent the first study transferring evidence from the animal model to humans based on preclinical research findings.
The goal of WISH Human Research is to verify whether the epigenetic and neurophysiological alterations observed in animal models are also present in women who have experienced IPV and to understand their impact on mental, physical, and brain health.
Challenges in Research
Beyond scientific gaps, IPV is often a neglected topic in research. Two areas in particular require attention:
- Cardiovascular impact: although women are more vulnerable to stress-related cardiovascular diseases, the effect of IPV on the heart is poorly studied, especially in younger women.
- Brain-heart interconnection: the effects of chronic IPV-related stress on the brain and heart are still not well understood, despite growing interest in neurocardiac regulation.
Our Hypotheses
WISH Lab (UNIPD) has demonstrated that chronic exposure to violence (male aggressor – female victim) reduces estrogen-mediated neuroprotection, particularly through dysfunction of the Erβ (estrogen receptor beta).
ERβ activation plays a key role in regulating neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, cardiovascular function, and stress resilience.
These alterations may contribute to the higher vulnerability of women who have experienced IPV to mood disorders, cognitive dysfunctions, and chronic stress–related diseases.
Lo studio coinvolgerà un centinaio di donne tra i 18 e i 45 anni, attraverso la collaborazione con il Centro Veneto Progetti Donna, il Centro Anti-violenza SVSeD del Policlinico di Milano, e il dipartimento di Ostetricia e Ginecologia.
- ANALISI DEL SANGUE: Saranno analizzati i biomarcatori ematici per la misurazione degli ormoni dello stress, BDNF e serotonina.
- ANALISI EPIGENETICA: Sarà condotta un'analisi epigenetica per valutare la metilazione dei geni coinvolti nella risposta allo stress e nella plasticità neuronale, con particolare attenzione a ERβ, BDNF e recettori serotoninergici.
- ELETTROENCEFALOGRAMMA: Sarà registrata l'attività cerebrale tramite EEG.
- TEST: Saranno condotti test psicopatologici e neuropsicologici.
Metodologia scientifica
Lo studio coinvolgerà un centinaio di donne tra i 18 e i 45 anni, attraverso la collaborazione con il Centro Veneto Progetti Donna, il Centro Anti-violenza SVSeD del Policlinico di Milano, e il dipartimento di Ostetricia e Ginecologia.
- ANALISI DEL SANGUE: Saranno analizzati i biomarcatori ematici per la misurazione degli ormoni dello stress, BDNF e serotonina.
- ANALISI EPIGENETICA: Sarà condotta un'analisi epigenetica per valutare la metilazione dei geni coinvolti nella risposta allo stress e nella plasticità neuronale, con particolare attenzione a ERβ, BDNF e recettori serotoninergici.
- ELETTROENCEFALOGRAMMA: Sarà registrata l'attività cerebrale tramite EEG.
- TEST: Saranno condotti test psicopatologici e neuropsicologici.
WISH Risk Reduction
An Integrated Approach for the Prevention of Diseases Related to Intimate Partner Violence.
WISH Risk Reduction will use clinical and medical history data to assess the health implications of IPV, outline a health risk profile for women who have experienced violence, and develop strategies for their care within community health services.
Expected Results
The ultimate goal is to develop a screening and monitoring protocol to identify early women at risk of developing chronic diseases as a result of IPV. This will make it possible to:
- Improve diagnosis: Provide clinicians with evidence-based tools to recognize the biological signs of trauma from IPV.
- Personalize interventions: Develop targeted therapeutic pathways, both pharmacological and supportive, based on individual risk profiles.
- Promote prevention: Create guidelines for long-term health monitoring, reducing the incidence of cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuropsychiatric diseases among survivors.