Publications by authors named "Markus H Skowronek"

Article Synopsis
  • Neuregulin-1 (NRG1) is a significant gene linked to schizophrenia, with various isoforms affecting brain function.
  • Researchers analyzed the gene expression of NRG1 and its isoforms across three brain regions in 11 schizophrenia patients compared to eight control subjects.
  • Findings showed decreased expression of NRG1 isoform I and increased expression of isoform II in a specific brain area of schizophrenia patients, but further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these results.
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Background: Differences in personality traits have long been acknowledged as potential risk factors in developing psychiatric disorders. Lately, several susceptibility genes of different psychiatric disorders have been linked to personality traits. This has not been done for schizophrenia yet.

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Objective: To clarify the nature of the association between dopamine genes and smoking by examining whether genetic variability in components of the dopamine pathway could explain refined phenotypes in adolescent smoking progression.

Method: Data are from an ongoing prospective study of the long-term outcome of early risk factors studied since birth. At age 15 years, 220 participants (108 males, 112 females) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring smoking behavior and were genotyped for five dopamine gene variants.

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Genetic and environmental influences are both known to be causal factors in the development and maintenance of substance abuse disorders. This review aims to focus on the contributions of genetic and environmental research to the understanding of alcoholism and how gene-environment interactions result in a variety of addiction phenotypes. Gene-environment interactions have been reviewed by focusing on one of the most relevant environmental risk factors for alcoholism, stress.

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Context: Recent evidence suggests that gene x environment interactions could explain the inconsistent findings of association studies relating the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Objective: To examine whether psychosocial adversity moderated the effect of genetic variation in DAT1 on ADHD symptoms in adolescents from a high-risk community sample.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

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Altered glutamatergic neurotransmission is considered a potential etiological factor of schizophrenia (SCZ) and affective disorders. The gene ASCT1 (SLC1A4) coding for a Na+-dependent neutral aminoacid transporter is a member of the glutamate transporter superfamily and is located on 2p13-14, a region showing linkage to both SCZ and bipolar disorder (BD). ASCT1 can thus be considered a candidate gene for both disorders.

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Quantitative data concerning the content of human DNA and the effect of PCR inhibitors in a sample would provide very important information within a forensic DNA analysis. With the help of real-time PCR it is possible to test DNA samples for these influencing factors. However, the amplified DNA segments detected by means of usual TaqMan DNA probes are longer than most of the short tandem repeats to be investigated.

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