Publications by authors named "Costas J"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the role of the Pyk2 gene in obesity among children and adolescents, noting its previously unclear involvement in energy balance-related diseases.
  • - Researchers measured mRNA expression levels of Pyk2 in 130 Caucasian subjects, split into two groups based on Body Mass Index (BMI), and found higher expression levels in those with obesity.
  • - The results revealed a positive correlation between Pyk2 expression levels and various obesity-related metrics (like weight, fat mass, and blood pressure), suggesting that Pyk2 may be a potential predictor for developing obesity.
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  • The study investigates the genetic links between treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), lithium response in bipolar disorder (BD), and antidepressant response in major depressive disorder (MDD).
  • It employs the conditional/conjunctional false discovery rate (cond/conjFDR) methodology to identify shared genetic mechanisms that might influence treatment outcomes across these disorders.
  • The findings suggest a significant genetic correlation, particularly highlighting the MAP2K1 gene as a shared locus, and indicate a need for future research with larger data sets to validate these results.
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Cumulative evidence suggests that zebrafish is a useful model in psychiatric research. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) enables the reduction of genome-wide expression data to modules of highly co-expressed genes, which are hypothesized to interact within molecular networks. In this study, we first applied WGCNA to zebrafish brain expression data across different experimental conditions.

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Background: Epidemiological studies have linked low birth weight to psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders. Genomic analyses suggest a role of placental physiology on psychiatric risk. We investigated whether this association is causally related to impaired trophoblast function.

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Evidence suggests a remarkable shared genetic susceptibility between psychiatric disorders. However, sex-dependent differences have been less studied. We explored the contribution of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) polygenic scores (PGSs) on the risk for psychotic disorders and whether sex-dependent differences exist (CIBERSAM sample: 1826 patients and 1372 controls).

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Background: Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder characterized by increased cortical thinning throughout the life span. Studies have reported a shared genetic basis between schizophrenia and cortical thickness. However, no genes whose expression is related to abnormal cortical thinning in schizophrenia have been identified.

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Schizophrenia diagnosis and admission history were associated with a polygenic score (PGS) for schizophrenia based on a subset of variants that act by modifying the expression of genes whose expression is also modified by antipsychotics. This gene set was enriched in cytokine production. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is the only cytokine whose plasma levels were associated both with schizophrenia diagnosis and with acute decompensations in the largest meta-analysis.

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Article Synopsis
  • *Research previously posited that certain genetic risk factors could have offered advantages in specific environments, but newer studies dispute the idea of positive selection for these risk factors.
  • *The study used data from the 1000 Genomes Project to analyze how recent natural selection influenced schizophrenia-related genes, ultimately suggesting that non-antagonistic pleiotropy might explain the enduring presence of these genetic variations due to their links to other non-psychiatric traits.
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  • Schizophrenia (SCZ) often starts in late adolescence or early adulthood, and the age at onset (AAO) impacts long-term outcomes for the condition; this study investigates the genetic factors influencing AAO in SCZ using data from 4,740 individuals of European ancestry.* -
  • The research found that common genetic variants account for about 17-21% of the heritability of AAO, although no specific genetic loci were identified as significant; there was a negative correlation between AAO and variants linked to SCZ and other mental health issues.* -
  • The study highlighted the association of AAO with copy number variants (CNVs), specifically noting that the number and length of deletions are
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  • * Using advanced genetic analysis techniques, researchers identified 19 new risk loci for SCZ while also revealing that 42 previously thought associations might be influenced by smoking.
  • * The findings suggest a shared genetic risk between SCZ and smoking behaviors, indicating that understanding this relationship could enhance our knowledge about mental health and the impact of substances.
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Although treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is an important and frequent problem with a specific treatment, clozapine, its biological determinants are poorly understood. At the genetic level, most studies of association between schizophrenia polygenic risk score (SCZ PRS) and TRS did not reach statistical significance. However, no systematic review or meta-analysis of this type of study has been conducted.

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Objective: To test whether a schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PRS) based on the subset of polymorphisms that affect brain expression of genes with altered expression by antipsychotics (exprAP PRS) is associated with psychiatric readmission of patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: The study involved 427 patients with schizophrenia. Genes with altered expression by antipsychotics were extracted from the Comparative Toxigenomics Database.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers discovered 287 genomic regions associated with schizophrenia, emphasizing genes specifically active in excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and identified 120 key genes potentially responsible for these associations.
  • * The findings highlight important biological processes related to neuronal function, suggesting overlaps between common and rare genetic variants in both schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders, ultimately aiding future research on these conditions.
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Previous research suggests an association of loneliness and social isolation (LNL-ISO) with schizophrenia. Here, we demonstrate a LNL-ISO polygenic score contribution to schizophrenia risk in an independent case-control sample (N = 3,488). We then subset schizophrenia predisposing variation based on its effect on LNL-ISO.

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Whether there is a relationship between oxytocin (OXT) use in labor and the risk of autism (ASD), and the nature of such relationship, is unclear. By integrating genetic and clinical data in a sample of 176 ASD participants, we tested the hypothesis that OXT is a marker for abnormal prenatal development which leads to impairments in the process of labor. OXT-exposed ASD had more obstetric complications (P = 0.

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Smoking prevalence in schizophrenia is considerably larger than in general population, playing an important role in early mortality. We compared the polygenic contribution to smoking in schizophrenic patients and controls to assess if genetic factors may explain the different prevalence. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for smoking initiation and four genetically correlated traits were calculated in 1108 schizophrenic patients (64.

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  • The study explores how genetic factors contribute to alcohol dependence, highlighting that high alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence have different genetic correlations with other psychiatric traits.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 524 alcohol-dependent patients and 729 controls, calculating polygenic risk scores (PRS) to assess risks associated with alcohol use and various psychiatric disorders.
  • Findings indicate that both general psychopathology (via the polygenic p factor) and high alcohol consumption are associated with alcohol dependence, suggesting that genetic risks can be divided into different components affecting this condition.
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Background: Epidemiological data suggest that smoking may be a risk factor for schizophrenia (SCZ), but more evidence is needed. Two regions coding nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR) subunits, atCHRNA2 and the CHRNA5/A3/B4 cluster, were associated with SCZ in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Additionally, a signal at CHRNA4 is near significance.

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Our aim was to assess personality traits associated with substance use during pregnancy in a population-based, multicentre study of 1804 pregnant women. On day 2-3 postpartum, participants completed a semi-structured interview, including self-reported drug use (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, cannabis, cocaine, opioids) during pregnancy, and socio-demographic, reproductive and obstetric variables, personal and family psychiatric history, social support, and the Eysenck personality questionnaire, short version (EPQ-RS). Logistic regression models were conducted.

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Purpose: Alvocidib is a cyclin-dependent kinase 9 inhibitor leading to downregulation of the antiapoptotic BCL-2 family member, MCL-1. Alvocidib has shown clinical activity in a timed sequential regimen with cytarabine and mitoxantrone in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but has not been studied in combination with traditional 7+3 induction therapy.

Patients And Methods: A multiinstitutional phase I dose-escalation study of alvocidib on days 1-3 followed by 7+3 (cytarabine 100 mg/m/day i.

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  • There is significant variability in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), raising doubts about whether they should be treated as a single category.
  • A study analyzed genetic data from individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) compared to other ASD subtypes, finding that AS has more genetic links to conditions like schizophrenia, ADHD, and major depression.
  • Results indicated that certain psychiatric disorders strongly overlap with AS, showing that AS might share genetic risks that are less prevalent in other ASD types, particularly through the use of advanced genetic analysis techniques.
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Seasonal changes in mood and diurnal preference are two well-characterized chronobiological phenotypes in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). The biological mechanisms regulating physiological changes related to seasonality and chronotype involve several genes known as "clock" or circadian genes. Our goal was to study the relationship between the polygenic risk score (PRS) obtained from a set of clock genes and chronobiological traits in patients with mood disorders.

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