Publications by authors named "Chunling Wan"

Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the link between Myocardial Infarction (MI) and severe mental disorders (SMDs), highlighting the unclear genetic factors contributing to their shared risks and potential mortality.
  • A combined genome-wide association study (GWAS) and exome-wide association study (EWAS) identified common genetic elements and pathways connecting MI and SMDs, leading to the discovery of 27 potential causal genes.
  • The findings suggest that understanding the genetic overlap may deepen insights into the mechanisms behind both conditions and inform future treatments.
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  • Elevated levels of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) were found in patients with schizophrenia (SZ), potentially linked to increased apoptosis, but the exact causes are still unclear.
  • A study using advanced fluorescence correlation spectroscopy identified significantly higher cfDNA concentrations in SZ patients compared to those with mood disorders and healthy controls, with levels unaffected by disease stage or medication.
  • The analysis indicated that this increased cfDNA is primarily from the nucleus, suggesting connections to oxidative stress and elevated fasting blood glucose levels in SZ patients.
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Background: The diagnosis of adolescent Depressive Disorder (DD) lacks specific biomarkers, posing significant challenges. This study investigates the potential of Niacin Skin Flush Response (NSFR) as a biomarker for identifying and assessing the severity of adolescent Depressive Disorder, as well as distinguishing it from Behavioral and Emotional Disorders typically emerging in childhood and adolescence(BED).

Methods: In a case-control study involving 196 adolescents, including 128 Depressive Disorder, 32 Behavioral and Emotional Disorders, and 36 healthy controls (HCs), NSFR was assessed.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explores the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acids (ω3) as an additional treatment for depressive symptoms in adolescents when combined with Paxil, showing significant improvements after 12 weeks.
  • - Among the 71 participants aged 13-24, those taking omega-3 with Paxil demonstrated enhanced memory and cognitive function compared to those on Paxil alone, with notable changes in niacin skin flushing response (NSFR) correlated with lower depression scores.
  • - Although the results are promising, the trial's open-label design may introduce bias in the outcomes, warranting caution in interpreting the findings as definitive.
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Aim: Blunted niacin response (BNR) was an endophenotype of schizophrenia, but the underlying mechanism remains unclarified. The objective of this study was to verify whether genes associated with BNR pathway constitute the genetic basis and the pathological mechanism of BNR phenotypic psychiatric patients.

Methods: Two independent sample sets consisting of 971 subjects were enrolled in this study.

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  • The study examined how early changes in symptoms could predict long-term non-response to antipsychotic medications in schizophrenia patients.
  • At week 2, a less than 5% reduction in symptoms was most accurate for predicting non-response in severe and mild cases, while a 10% reduction was better for moderate cases.
  • By week 4, a cut-off of less than 20% reduction was found to be the best predictor of later non-response across all groups and medications, suggesting treatment adjustments may be necessary based on early symptom improvements.
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Evidence has shown that the gut microbiota is closely related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, but temporal changes in the gut microbiota of patients with schizophrenia (SZ) during treatment remain unclear. Here, to evaluate temporal changes in the gut microbiota in schizophrenia, we performed whole-genome shotgun metagenomics on fecal samples from 36 healthy controls (HCs) and 19 baseline-period patients, and followed up with patients upon treatment. Compared to that in HCs, beta diversity in SZ was significantly distinct.

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Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially long-chain PUFAs (LCPUFAs), are crucial for both the structural and functional integrity of cells. PUFAs have been reported to be insufficient in schizophrenia, and the resulting cell membrane impairments have been hypothesized as an etiological mechanism. However, the impact of PUFA deficiencies on the onset of schizophrenia remain uncertain.

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Immunological/inflammatory factors are implicated in the development of psychosis. Complement is a key driver of inflammation; however, it remains unknown which factor is better at predicting the onset of psychosis. This study aimed to compare the alteration and predictive performance of inflammation and complement in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR).

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Background: Depressive disorder (DD) affects approximately 20 % of adolescents worldwide, but it is underdiagnosed due to the lack of objective biomarkers. Niacin skin flushing response (NSFR) is an objective and noninvasive biomarker of adult depression; however, its effectiveness has not been assessed in adolescents.

Methods: This study included 198 adolescents with 50 % healthy controls (HC).

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Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in children and adolescents worldwide, but among the difficulties that pediatric mental health faces is a lack of objective biomarkers used for early identification or diagnosis. Studies to date indicate that niacin skin flushing response (NSFR) could be a biomarker for adult patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders. However, there are limited data on NSFR in pediatric patients with mental disorders.

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Background And Hypothesis: Multiple lines of clinical, biochemical, and genetic evidence suggest that disturbances of membrane lipids and their metabolism are probably involved in the etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). Lipids in the membrane are essential to neural development and brain function, however, their role in SCZ remains largely unexplored.

Study Design: Here we investigated the lipidome of the erythrocyte membrane of 80 patients with SCZ and 40 healthy controls using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

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Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), also known as Machado Joseph disease (MJD), is a common dominantly inherited ataxia, and has heterogeneous clinical features and variable age of onset, ranging from 10 to 78 years. Repeats variability of ATXN3, HTT, ATN1 and ATXN2 can explain partially but not fully SCA3 age of onset heterogeneity. Aging is a reported modifier of SCA3 severity and closely linked to DNA methylation (DNAm).

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Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder and often has a prodromal period, referred to as clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, prior to the first episode. The etiology and pathogenesis of schizophrenia remain unclear. Despite the human gut microbiome being associated with schizophrenia, the role of the oral microbiome, which is a vital player in the mouth-body connection, is not well understood.

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Background: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 0.75% of the global population. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to development of SCZ.

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Schizophrenia is a complex and highly heterogeneous mental illness with a prodromal period called clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis before onset. Metabolomics is greatly promising in analyzing the pathology of complex diseases and exploring diagnostic biomarkers. Therefore, we conducted salivary metabolomics analysis in 83 first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients, 42 CHR individuals, and 78 healthy controls with ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

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Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder that affects 1% of the global population. Copy number variations (CNVs) have been shown to play a critical role in its pathophysiology; however, only case-control studies on SCZ susceptibility CNVs have been conducted in Han Chinese. Here, we performed an array comparative genomic hybridization-based genome-wide CNV analysis in 100 Chinese family trios with SCZ.

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As an essential post-translational modification, acetylation participates in various cellular processes and shows aberrances during tumorigenesis. Owing to its modification substrate, acetyl-CoA, acetylation is postulated as a depot for acetyl groups and evolve to build a connection between epigenetics and metabolism. Here we depict a distinct acetylome atlas of hepatocellular carcinoma from the perspectives of both protein acetylation and acetyl-CoA metabolism.

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The lack of objective diagnostic markers has long been a challenge in the clinical management of schizophrenia (SZ). The current bivariate cut-offs method is an objective quantification of niacin skin flush abnormality (NFA) for identifying the SZ subgroup. However, the sensitivity of approximately 30% limits the application of NFA as a marker for detecting SZ.

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Objective: Violent behaviour is an alarming problem among schizophrenia patients. The effects of historical, clinical, and pathological risk factors for violence have been investigated by multiple studies, but consensus has not been achieved. As psychotic symptoms are more direct and intuitive indicators for violence, identifying robustly associated symptoms is a crucial part of the future prediction and precise management of violent patients in clinics.

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Aim: Schizophrenia and affective disorders all show high heterogeneity in clinical manifestations. A lack of objective biomarkers has long been a challenge in the clinical diagnosis of these diseases. In this study, we aimed to investigate the performance of niacin skin flushing in schizophrenia and affective disorders and determine its clinical potential as an auxiliary diagnostic marker.

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Recent evidence supports an association between lipid metabolism dysfunction and the pathology of schizophrenia which has led to the search for peripheral blood-based biomarkers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the proteins involved in lipid metabolism (especially apolipoprotein) and to explore their potential as biomarkers for schizophrenia. Using multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS), we quantified 22 proteins in serum samples of 109 healthy controls (HCs) and 111 patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), who were divided into discovery and validation sets.

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Background: Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe mental disease with highly heterogeneous clinical manifestations and pathological mechanisms. Schizophrenia is linked to abnormalities in cell membrane phospholipids and blunting of the niacin skin flush response, but the associations between these phenotypes and its molecular pathogenesis remain unclear. This study aimed to describe the PLA2/COX pathway, the key link between phospholipids and niacin flush, and to illustrate the pathogenic mechanisms in schizophrenia that mediate the above phenotypes.

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Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder with a strong genetic component. High heritability of SCZ suggests a major role for transmitted genetic variants. Furthermore, SCZ is also associated with a marked reduction in fecundity, leading to the hypothesis that alleles with large effects on risk might often occur de novo.

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