Exercise Reduces Salivary Morning Cortisol Levels in Patients with Depression
Conclusions and Message: PE reduced the rate of cortisol level decline across the day in depressed adults. ICBT and TAU treatments had no detectable effects on diurnal cortisol levels. Larger samples are required for the detection and comparison of smaller effects of PE, ICBT and TAU on diurnal cortisol levels.Mol Neuropsychiatry (Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry)
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - December 19, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
OMICS Approaches to Unravel the Complexity of Psychiatric Disorders: Impact on Biomarker Discovery
Mol Neuropsychiatry (Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry)
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 20, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Neurobiological and Neurophysiological Mechanisms Underlying Nicotine Seeking and Smoking Relapse
Tobacco-related morbidity and mortality continue to be a significant public health concern. Unfortunately, current FDA-approved smoking cessation pharmacotherapies have limited efficacy and are associated with high rates of relapse. Therefore, a better understanding of the neurobiological and neurophysiological mechanisms that promote smoking relapse is needed to develop novel smoking cessation medications. Here, we review preclinical studies focused on identifying the neurotransmitter and neuromodulator systems that mediate nicotine relapse, often modeled in laboratory animals using the reinstatement paradigm, as well as ...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 20, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Potential Role of Antipsychotic-Galantamine-Memantine Combination in the Treatment of Positive, Cognitive, and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia
The objective of this article is to critically dissect the published randomized cont rolled trials with galantamine and memantine for CIAS to highlight the efficacy signal. These studies may have failed to detect a clinically meaningful efficacy signal due to limitations, methodological issues, and possible medication nonadherence. There is evidence from a small open-label study tha t the galantamine-memantine combination may be effective for CIAS with kynurenine pathway metabolites as biomarkers to detect the severity of cognitive impairments. Given that there are no available treatments for cognitive impairments and prim...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 20, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Sex-Specific Associations of Androgen Receptor CAG Trinucleotide Repeat Length and of Raloxifene Treatment with Testosterone Levels and Perceived Stress in Schizophrenia
Lower testosterone levels are associated with greater negative symptoms in men with schizophrenia. Testosterone signals via androgen receptor (AR). A functional variant in the AR gene (CAG trinucleotide repeat polymorphism) is associated with circulating testosterone and mood-related symptoms in healthy people. Raloxifene increases testosterone in healthy males and reduces symptom severity and improves cognition in schizophrenia; however, whether raloxifene increases testosterone in men with schizophrenia is unknown. We assessed the interaction of a functional AR gene variant and adjunctive raloxifene on peripheral testost...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 20, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Ketamine ’s Effects on the Glutamatergic and GABAergic Systems: A Proteomics and Metabolomics Study in Mice
In conclusion and in line with previous research, our data indicate that ketamine impacts the AMPAR subunit Gria2 and results in decreased GABAergic inhibitory neurotransmissi on leading to increased excitatory neuronal activity.Mol Neuropsychiatry (Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry)
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 15, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Brain Gene Expression Pattern of Subjects with Completed Suicide and Comorbid Substance Use Disorder
Conclusion: Interaction between suicide and SUD seems to influence the expression of genes involved in glial proliferation and glutamatergic neurotransmission. These results highlight, for the first time, that suicides with SUD have a gene expression profile distinct from that of subjects with only one of these disorders.Mol Neuropsychiatry (Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry)
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 12, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
In the Realm of Psychoneuroimmunology: The Role of Celecoxib as an Add-On Treatment for Bipolar Mania
Bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) is a chronic debilitating psychiatric illness seriously affecting the quality of patients ’ life. The available treatment is effective in about half of those suffering from the illness. The neurobiological basis of the disorder is not fully unraveled. With such lacunae, attempts have been made to decipher the underlying neuroimmunological process of the illness as is the case with othe r mental disorders. As a result, some inflammatory processes have been implicated in the etiology of BPAD, as described in this communication. Subsequently, the role of anti-inflammatory agents such as cel...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 8, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Regulation of the Expression of the Psychiatric Risk Gene < b > < i > Cacna1c < /i > < /b > during Associative Learning
CACNA1C encodes the Cav1.2 L-type voltage-gated calcium channel. Generic variation in CACNA1C has been consistently identified as associated with risk for psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and autism. Psychiatric risk loci are also enriched for genes involved in the regulation of synaptic plasticity. Here, we show that the expression ofCacna1c is regulated in the rat hippocampus after context exposure, contextual fear conditioning and fear memory retrieval in a manner that correlates to specific memory processes. Using quantitative in situ hybridisation, the expressi...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 7, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
< b > < i > VRK2 < /i > < /b > , a Candidate Gene for Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders
Recent large-scale genetic approaches, such as genome-wide association studies, have identified multiple genetic variations that contribute to the risk of mental illnesses, among which single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within or near the vaccinia related kinase 2 (VRK2) gene have gained consistent support for their correlations with multiple psychiatric and neurological disorders including schizophrenia (SCZ), major depressive disorder (MDD), and genetic generalized epilepsy. For instance, the genetic variant rs1518395 inVRK2 showed genome-wide significant associations with SCZ (35,476 cases and 46,839 controls,p = 3....
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - November 7, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Research Domain Criteria: Cutting Edge Neuroscience or Galen ’s Humors Revisited?
The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) scheme has guided the research agenda of the National Institute of Mental Health for the past decade. The essence of RDoC is its dimensional conception of mental illness, with the assumption that psychopathology is a manifestation of extremes along axes of neuropsychological variation. Research, it follows, should emphasize normal neuropsychological function and its associated neurocircuitry. We argue that RDoC, dressed in terms of modern neurobiology, is in fact a return to the humoral theory of Galen, a dimensional approach in which physical and mental health requires a balance of the ...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - October 11, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
X-Aptamer Technology Identifies C4A and ApoB in Blood as Potential Markers for Schizophrenia
The field of proteomics is rapidly gaining territory as a promising alternative to genomic approaches in the efforts to unravel the complex molecular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. X-aptamer tech nology has emerged as a novel proteomic approach for high-sensitivity analyses, and we hypothesized that this technology would identify unique molecular signatures in plasma samples from schizophrenia patients (n = 60) compared to controls (n = 20). Using a combinatorial library of X-aptamer beads, we developed a two-color flow cytometer-based approach to identify specific X-aptamers that bo...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - October 10, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Associations between the < b > < i > LEP < /i > < /b > -2548G/A Promoter and Baseline Weight and between < b > < i > LEPR < /i > < /b > Gln223Arg and Lys656Asn Variants and Change in BMI < b > < i > z < /i > < /b > Scores in Arab Children and Adolescents Treated with Risperidone
Data on baseline (antipsychotics-na ïve) age, weight, and height, and change in these at 3 subsequent follow-up time points up to 313.6 days (95% CI 303.5–323.7) were collected from 181 risperidone-treated children and adolescents (mean age 12.58 years, SD 4.99, range 2.17–17.7) attending a pediatric neurology clinic in Saudi Ara bia. Owing to differences in genotypic distributions in the subsamples, results are reported for the white Arab population (n = 144). Age- and gender-normed body mass index (BMI)-standardizedz scores (BMIz) were calculated (LMSgrowth program). Linear regression was performed for baseline weig...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - October 5, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Pharmacogenetics of Antipsychotic Drug Treatment: Update and Clinical Implications
Numerous genetic variants have been shown to be associated with antipsychotic response and adverse effects of schizophrenia treatment. However, the clinical application of these findings is limited. The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the most recent publications and recommendations related to the genetics of antipsychotic treatment and shed light on the clinical utility of pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics (PGx). We reviewed the literature on PGx studies with antipsychotic drugs (i.e., antipsychotic response and adverse effects) and commonly used commercial PGx tools for clinical practice. Publications and re...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - October 4, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
Perturbations of Neuron-Restrictive Silencing Factor Modulate Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Gene Expression in the Human Cell Line BeWo
Stress exacerbates disease, and understanding its molecular mechanisms is crucial to the development of novel therapeutic interventions to combat stress-related disorders. The driver of the stress response in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) is corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), a neuropeptide synthesized in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Evidence supports that CRH expression is epigenetically modified at the molecular level by environmental stimuli, causing changes in the stress response. This effect is mediated by a concert of factors that translate environmental change into alterations...
Source: Molecular Neuropsychiatry - September 19, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research
