Publications by authors named "M J Mikesell"

Given how COVID-19 had caused significant increases in collegiate athletes' psychological distress, we examined the extent to which such distress may have been ameliorated by the athletes' psychosocial resources (e.g., resilience).

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Schizophrenia is one of the most common, devastating, and least understood neuropsychiatric illnesses present in the human population. Despite decades of research involving neurochemical, neuroanatomical, neuropathologic, neurodevelopmental, neuropsychological, and genetic approaches, no clear etiopathophysiology has been elucidated. Among the most robust findings, however, is the contribution of genetics to disease development.

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We show that GAA instability in Friedreich's Ataxia is a DNA-directed mutation caused by improper DNA structure at the repeat region. Unlike CAG or CGG repeats, which form hairpins, GAA repeats form a YRY triple helix containing non-Watson-Crick pairs. As with hairpins, triplex mediates intergenerational instability in 96% of transmissions.

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Schizophrenia is a complex and severe disorder of unknown cause and pathophysiology. In previous work examining an opioid hypothesis for schizophrenia, we identified a missense mutation (Gly(247)-->Asp) in the proenkephalin A gene of one African-American patient. In the current study involving an extended set of African-American and other patients, we sought to identify additional mutant alleles and to determine the distribution of these alleles among several racial groups.

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Schizophrenia is a complex and severe disorder of unknown cause and pathophysiology. In this study, we examined the opioid hypothesis for schizophrenia at the molecular level, focusing on the dopamine-regulated proenkephalin A gene (chromosome 8q11.23-q12).

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