Incorporating polygenic liability and family history for predicting psychiatric diseases in the Taiwan biobank.

Background: This study investigated the interplay between molecular measures of polygenic risk score (PRS) and conventional measures of family history (FH) on the risk of four psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in community samples of East Asian populations. We examined the individual and joint associations and relative contributions of PRS and FH and evaluated the potential of combining transdiagnostic PRSs and FHs to improve risk prediction.

Methods: The genotyping of 106,581 unrelated participants from the Taiwan Biobank was linked to the National Health Insurance Research Database to retrieve information on ICD-defined diseases and FH.

Taiwan Biobank: A rich biomedical research database of the Taiwanese population.

The Taiwan Biobank (TWB) is an ongoing prospective study of >150,000 individuals aged 20-70 in Taiwan. A comprehensive list of phenotypes was collected for each consented participant at recruitment and follow-up visits through structured interviews and physical measurements. Biomarkers and genetic data were generated from blood and urine samples.

Causality of abdominal obesity on cognition: a trans-ethnic Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Obesity has been associated with cognition in observational studies; however, whether its effect is confounding or a reverse causality remains inconclusive. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationships of overall obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), and abdominal adiposity, measured by waist-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI), and cognition across European and Asian populations using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Methods: We used publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data of European ancestry, including BMI (n = 322,154) and WHRadjBMI (n = 210,088) from the GIANT consortium, and cognition performance (n = 257,828) from the UK Biobank and COGENT consortium.

Dynamic muscle paralytic effects of a novel botulinum toxin A free of neurotoxin-associated proteins.

Structurally, botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) is composed of neurotoxin and nontoxic complexing proteins (CPs), and the neurotoxin has the function of blocking acetylcholine release from the neuromuscular junction and therefore paralyzing muscles. Nowadays, a novel botulinum toxin A free of CPs (chinbotulinumtoxin A, A/Chin) is produced, and the present study comprehensively evaluated the dynamic paralytic effect of A/Chin on the gastrocnemius muscle of rats. Different doses (0.

High level expression of human endostatin in Pichia pastoris using a synthetic gene construct.

Endostatin, a 20-kDa C-terminal fragment derived from type XVIII collagen, is a potent angiogenesis inhibitor and an antitumor factor. To improve the production of recombinant human endostatin on increasing demand in clinical practice, we constructed an artificial gene encoding its mature peptide sequence in human collagen XVIII. The synthetic gene consisted of 20 codons in preference in methylotropic yeast-Pichia pastoris and was cloned into expression vector pPICZalphaA; and the recombinant protein was expressed in P.

Expression and purification of soluble non-fusion vasostatin in Escherichia coli.

Vasostatin has previously been expressed in fused form or in inclusion body form in Escherichia coli. Here the protein was expressed in soluble non-fusion form in BL21(DE3)pLysS by IPTG induction. The expression level of vasostatin was about 15% of the total cellular protein.