| 1. |
- Arora, Abishek, et al.
(författare)
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Screening autism-associated environmental factors in differentiating human neural progenitors with fractional factorial design-based transcriptomics
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Nature. - 2045-2322. ; 13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research continues to identify genetic variation, environmental exposures, and their mixtures underlying different diseases and conditions. There is a need for screening methods to understand the molecular outcomes of such factors. Here, we investigate a highly efficient and multiplexable, fractional factorial experimental design (FFED) to study six environmental factors (lead, valproic acid, bisphenol A, ethanol, fluoxetine hydrochloride and zinc deficiency) and four human induced pluripotent stem cell line derived differentiating human neural progenitors. We showcase the FFED coupled with RNA-sequencing to identify the effects of low-grade exposures to these environmental factors and analyse the results in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We performed this after 5-day exposures on differentiating human neural progenitors accompanied by a layered analytical approach and detected several convergent and divergent, gene and pathway level responses. We revealed significant upregulation of pathways related to synaptic function and lipid metabolism following lead and fluoxetine exposure, respectively. Moreover, fluoxetine exposure elevated several fatty acids when validated using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Our study demonstrates that the FFED can be used for multiplexed transcriptomic analyses to detect relevant pathway-level changes in human neural development caused by low-grade environmental risk factors. Future studies will require multiple cell lines with different genetic backgrounds for characterising the effects of environmental exposures in ASD.
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| 2. |
- Bussu, Giorgia, et al.
(författare)
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The latent structure of emerging cognitive abilities : An infant twin study
- 2023
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Ingår i: Intelligence. - : Elsevier. - 0160-2896 .- 1873-7935. ; 99, s. 101771-101771
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is well known that genetic factors account for up to 70% of variability in cognition from childhood to adulthood. However, less is known about the first year of life. This study investigated the etiological factors influencing individual variability in different domains of emerging cognitive and motor abilities in early infancy, and to what extent genetic and environmental influences are unique or shared across different domains. We compared multivariate twin models built on scores from the five scales of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) in a community sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins at 5 months of age (n=567). The results indicated a hierarchical etiological structure whereby a general genetic latent factor accounted for 54% of variance underlying the different domains of emerging cognitive and motor abilities (A=0.54, confidence interval CI=[0; 0.82]). We also found additional genetic influences that were specific to early motor and language development. Unlike previous findings on older children, we did not find significant influences of shared environment on the shared factor (C=0, CI=[0, 0.57]), or any specific scale. Furthermore, influences of unique environment, which include measurement error, were moderate and statistically significant (E=0.46, CI=0.18; 0.81]). This study provides strong evidence for a unitary hierarchical structure across different domains of emerging cognition. Evidence that a single common etiological factor, which we term infant g, contributes to a range of different abilities supports the view that in young infants, intrinsic and general neurodevelopmental processes are key drivers of observable behavioural differences in specific domains.
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| 3. |
- Choque Olsson, Nora, et al.
(författare)
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Social Skills Training for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder : A Randomized Controlled Trial
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0890-8567 .- 1527-5418. ; 56:7, s. 585-592
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Social skills group training (SSGT) for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely applied, but effectiveness in real-world practice has not yet been properly evaluated. This study sought to bridge this gap.METHOD: This 12-week pragmatic randomized controlled trial of SSGT compared to standard care alone was conducted at 13 child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient units in Sweden. Twelve sessions of manualized SSGT ("KONTAKT") were delivered by regular clinical staff. Participants (N = 296; 88 females and 208 males) were children (n = 172) and adolescents (n = 124) aged 8 to 17 years with ASD without intellectual disability. The primary outcome was the Social Responsiveness Scale rating by parents and blinded teachers. Secondary outcomes included parent- and teacher-rated adaptive behaviors, trainer-rated global functioning and clinical severity, and self-reported child and caregiver stress. Assessments were made at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Moderator analyses were conducted for age and gender.RESULTS: Significant treatment effects on the primary outcome were limited to parent ratings for the adolescent subgroup (posttreatment: -8.3; 95% CI = -14.2 to -1.9; p = .012, effect size [ES] = 0.32; follow-up: -8.6; 95% CI = -15.4 to -1.8; p = .015, ES = 0.33) and females (posttreatment: -8.9; 95% CI = -16.2 to -1.6; p = .019, ES = 0.40). Secondary outcomes indicated moderate effects on adaptive functioning and clinical severity.CONCLUSION: SSGT for children and adolescents with ASD in regular mental health services is feasible and safe. However, the modest and inconsistent effects underscore the importance of continued efforts to improve SSGT beyond current standards.CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Social Skills Group Training ("KONTAKT") for Children and Adolescent With High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT01854346.
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| 4. |
- Etemadikhah, Mitra
(författare)
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Gene and pathway associations in neurodevelopmental disorders
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Neurodevelopmental disorders are complex and heterogenous disorders affecting brain development. In this thesis, we study intellectual disability (ID) and schizophrenia, and we applied genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic techniques to identify and further investigate candidate variants and important genes and pathways involved in pathology of these two disorders.In paper I, genotyping and exome analyses were performed in a large multi-generational family with non-syndromic ID from a North Swedish isolate, with the aim to identify linkage regions and disease-associated variants. The linkage analysis identified four suggestive linkage regions. The exome sequencing revealed a known pathogenic mutation in the SLC17A5 gene, and potential pathogenic CNVs overlapping the genes KDM3B and MAP3K4/AGPAT4. The overall results indicated that ID is genetically heterogeneous in this family. In paper II, transcriptome sequencing was performed on fibroblast cells from schizophrenia patients and control individuals from a large family in a genetically isolated region in northern Sweden. We detected 48 significant differentially expressed genes, of which eight genes were previously associated with schizophrenia. These results provide further support for the use of fibroblasts, and highlight benefit of using isolated populations in studies of neurodevelopmental disorders.In paper III, transcriptome sequencing was performed on a large cohort of post-mortem brain tissue samples from schizophrenia patients and controls. In total, 71 significant differentially expressed genes were detected, and gene ontology analysis showed enrichment of genes from the immune system and more specifically the complement system. Our results implicate significant upregulation of complement genes in a subset of the patients.In paper IV, we performed further proteomic analysis on the same sample set as paper III. The primary results from proximity extension assays show significant differential expression of schizophrenia-associated proteins in a subgroup of patients. In total, 21 differentially expressed proteins were identified by the immune panel, 12 proteins by the inflammation panel, and two by the custom panel. The protein IL6 was included in all three panels and consistently showed significant expression changes. Our transcriptome and proteome results highlight the important role of immune system in schizophrenia pathology.
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| 5. |
- Hardiansyah, Irzam, et al.
(författare)
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Determining Zygosity in Infant Twins – Revisiting the Questionnaire Approach
- 2021
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Ingår i: Twin Research and Human Genetics. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1832-4274 .- 1839-2628. ; 24:3, s. 168-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Accurate zygosity determination is a fundamental step in twin research. Although DNA-based testing is the gold standard for determining zygosity, collecting biological samples is not feasible in all research settings or all families. Previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of zygosity estimation based on questionnaire (physical similarity) data in older twins, but the extent to which this is also a reliable approach in infancy is less well established. Here, we report the accuracy of different questionnaire-based zygosity determination approaches (traditional and machine learning) in 5.5 month-old twins. The participant cohort comprised 284 infant twin pairs (128 dizygotic and 156 monozygotic) who participated in the Babytwins Study Sweden (BATSS). Manual scoring based on an established technique validated in older twins accurately predicted 90.49% of the zygosities with a sensitivity of 91.65% and specificity of 89.06%. The machine learning approach improved the prediction accuracy to 93.10%, with a sensitivity of 91.30% and specificity of 94.29%. Additionally, we quantified the systematic impact of zygosity misclassification on estimates of genetic and environmental influences using simulation-based sensitivity analysis on a separate data set to show the implication of our machine learning accuracy gain. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the feasibility of determining zygosity in very young infant twins using a questionnaire with four items and builds a scalable machine learning model with better metrics, thus a viable alternative to DNA tests in large-scale infant twin studies.
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| 6. |
- Isaksson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) : the autism twin cohort
- 2018
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Ingår i: Molecular Autism. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2040-2392. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- EU-AIMS is the largest European research program aiming to identify stratification biomarkers and novel interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Within the program, the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) has recruited and comprehensively phenotyped a rare sample of 76 monozygotic and dizygotic twins, discordant, or concordant for ASD plus 30 typically developing twins. The aim of this letter is to complete previous descriptions of the LEAP case-control sample, clinically characterize, and investigate the suitability of the sample for ASD twin-control analyses purposes and share some 'lessons learnt.' Among the twins, a diagnosis of ASD is associated with increased symptom levels of ADHD, higher rates of intellectual disability, and lower family income. For the future, we conclude that the LEAP twin cohort offers multiple options for analyses of genetic and shared and non-shared environmental factors to generate new hypotheses for the larger cohort of LEAP singletons, but particularly cross-validate and refine evidence from it.
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| 7. |
- Jonsson, Ulf, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Long-term social skills group training for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder : a randomized controlled trial.
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1018-8827 .- 1435-165X. ; 28:2, s. 189-201
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social skills group training (SSGT) is widely used for intellectually able children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies indicate small to moderate effects on social communication capacities. The duration of most available programs is relatively short, and extended training might lead to further improvement. This randomized controlled trial compared an extended 24-week version of the SSGT program KONTAKT with standard care. The weekly sessions gradually shifted in content from acquisition of new skills to real-world application of the acquired skills. A total of 50 participants with ASD (15 females; 35 males) aged 8-17 years were included. The study was conducted at two child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient units in Sweden. The primary outcome was the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2) rated by parents and blinded teachers. Secondary outcomes included parent- and teacher-rated adaptive behaviors, trainer-rated global functioning and clinical severity, and self-reported child and caregiver stress. Assessments were made at baseline, posttreatment, and at 3-months follow-up. Parent-rated SRS-2 scores indicated large effects posttreatment [- 19.2; 95% CI - 29.9 to - 8.5; p < .001, effect size (ES) = 0.76], which were maintained at follow-up (- 20.7; 95% CI - 31.7 to - 9.7; p < .0001, ES = 0.82). These estimates indicate substantially larger improvement than previously reported for shorter SSGT. However, the effects on teacher-rated SRS-2 and most secondary outcomes did not reach statistical significance. Our results suggest added benefits of extended SSGT training, implying that service providers might reach better results by optimizing the delivery of SSGT.
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| 8. |
- Koido, Kati, et al.
(författare)
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Lack of guidelines and translational knowledge is hindering the implementation of psychiatric genetic counseling and testing within Europe : A multi-professional survey study
- 2023
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Ingår i: European Journal of Medical Genetics. - : Elsevier. - 1769-7212 .- 1878-0849. ; 66:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic research has identified a large number of genetic variants, both rare and common, underlying neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) and major psychiatric disorders. Currently, these findings are being translated into clinical practice. However, there is a lack of knowledge and guidelines for psychiatric genetic testing (PsychGT) and genetic counseling (PsychGC). The European Union-funded COST action EnGagE (CA17130) network was started to investigate the current implementation status of PsychGT and PsychGC across 35 participating European countries. Here, we present the results of a pan-European online survey in which we gathered the opinions, knowledge, and practices of a self-selected sample of professionals involved/interested in the field.We received answers from 181 respondents. The three main occupational categories were genetic counselor (21.0%), clinical geneticist (24.9%), and researcher (25.4%). Of all 181 respondents, 106 provide GC for any psychiatric disorder or NDD, corresponding to 58.6% of the whole group ranging from 43.2% in Central Eastern Europe to 66.1% in Western Europe. Overall, 65.2% of the respondents reported that genetic testing is offered to individuals with NDD, and 26.5% indicated the same for individuals with major psychiatric disorders. Only 22.1% of the respondents indicated that they have guidelines for PsychGT. Pharmacogenetic testing actionable for psychiatric disorders was offered by 15%. Interestingly, when genetic tests are fully covered by national health insurance, more genetic testing is provided for individuals with NDD but not those with major psychiatric disorders.Our qualitative analyses of responses highlight the lack of guidelines and knowledge on utilizing and using genetic tests and education and training as the major obstacles to implementation. Indeed, the existence of psychiatric genetic training courses was confirmed by only 11.6% of respondents. The question on the relevance of up-to-date education and training in psychiatric genetics on everyday related practice was highly relevant.We provide evidence that PsychGC and PsychGT are already in use across European countries, but there is a lack of guidelines and education. Harmonization of practice and development of guidelines for genetic counseling, testing, and training professionals would improve equality and access to quality care for individuals with psychiatric disorders within Europe.
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| 9. |
- Li, Danyang, et al.
(författare)
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Rare variants in the outcome of social skills group training for autism
- 2022
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Ingår i: Autism Research. - : Wiley. - 1939-3792 .- 1939-3806. ; 15:3, s. 434-446
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exome sequencing has been proposed as the first-tier genetic testing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we performed exome sequencing in autistic individuals with average to high intellectual abilities (N = 207) to identify molecular diagnoses and genetic modifiers of intervention outcomes of social skills group training (SSGT) or standard care. We prioritized variants of clinical significance (VCS), variants of uncertain significance (VUS) and generated a pilot scheme to calculate genetic scores of rare and common variants in ASD-related gene pathways. Mixed linear models were used to test the association between the carrier status of VCS/VUS or the genetic scores with intervention outcomes measured by the social responsiveness scale. Additionally, we combined behavioral and genetic features using a machine learning (ML) model to predict the individual response. We showed a rate of 4.4% and 11.3% of VCS and VUS in the cohort, respectively. Individuals with VCS or VUS had improved significantly less after standard care than non-carriers at post-intervention (β = 9.35; p = 0.036), while no such association was observed for SSGT (β = −2.50; p = 0.65). Higher rare variant genetic scores for synaptic transmission and regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II were separately associated with less beneficial (β = 8.30, p = 0.0044) or more beneficial (β = −6.79, p = 0.014) effects after SSGT compared with standard care at follow-up, respectively. Our ML model showed the importance of rare variants for outcome prediction. Further studies are needed to understand genetic predisposition to intervention outcomes in ASD.
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| 10. |
- Li, Danyang, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of common polygenic risk and gene sets on social skills group training response in autism spectrum disorder
- 2020
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Ingår i: NPJ Genomic Medicine. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2056-7944. ; 5:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social skills group training (SSGT) is a frequently used behavioral intervention in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the effects are moderate and heterogeneous. Here, we analyzed the effect of polygenic risk score (PRS) and common variants in gene sets on the intervention outcome. Participants from the largest randomized clinical trial of SSGT in ASD to date were selected (N = 188, 99 from SSGT, 89 from standard care) to calculate association between the outcomes in the SSGT trial and PRSs for ASD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and educational attainment. In addition, specific gene sets were selected to evaluate their role on intervention outcomes. Among all participants in the trial, higher PRS for ADHD was associated with significant improvement in the outcome measure, the parental-rated Social Responsiveness Scale. The significant association was due to better outcomes in the standard care group for individuals with higher PRS for ADHD (post-intervention: β = −4.747, P = 0.0129; follow-up: β = −5.309, P = 0.0083). However, when contrasting the SSGT and standard care group, an inferior outcome in the SSGT group was associated with higher ADHD PRS at follow-up (β = 6.67, P = 0.016). Five gene sets within the synaptic category showed a nominal association with reduced response to interventions. We provide preliminary evidence that genetic liability calculated from common variants could influence the intervention outcomes. In the future, larger cohorts should be used to investigate how genetic contribution affects individual response to ASD interventions.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Martin, Joanna, et al.
(författare)
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Copy number variation and neuropsychiatric problems in females and males in the general population
- 2019
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Ingår i: American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1552-4841 .- 1552-485X. ; 180:6, s. 341-350
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neurodevelopmental problems (NPs) are more common in males, whereas anxiety and depression are more common in females. Rare copy number variants (CNVs) have been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. The aim of this study was to characterize the relationship between rare CNVs with NPs, anxiety, and depression in a childhood population sample, as well as to examine sex-specific effects. We analyzed a sample of N = 12,982 children, of whom 5.3% had narrowly defined NPs (clinically diagnosed), 20.9% had broadly defined NPs (based on validated screening measures, but no diagnosis), and 3.0% had clinically diagnosed anxiety or depression. Rare (<1% frequency) CNVs were categorized by size (100-500 kb or > 500 kb), type, and putative relevance to NPs. We tested for association of CNV categories with outcomes and examined sex-specific effects. Medium deletions (OR[CI] = 1.18[1.05-1.33], p = .0053) and large duplications (OR[CI] = 1.45[1.19-1.75], p = .00017) were associated with broadly defined NPs. Large deletions (OR[CI] = 1.85[1.14-3.01], p = .013) were associated with narrowly defined NPs. There were no significant sex differences in CNV burden in individuals with NPs. Although CNVs were not associated with anxiety/depression in the whole sample, in individuals diagnosed with these disorders, females were more likely to have large CNVs (OR[CI] = 3.75[1.45-9.68], p = .0064). Rare CNVs are associated with both narrowly and broadly defined NPs in a general population sample of children. Our results also suggest that large, rare CNVs may show sex-specific phenotypic effects.
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| 13. |
- Massinen, Satu, et al.
(författare)
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Functional interaction of DYX1C1 with estrogen receptors suggests involvement of hormonal pathways in dyslexia
- 2009
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Ingår i: Human Molecular Genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 18:15, s. 2802-2812
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dyslexia, or specific reading disability, is the unexpected failure in learning to read and write when intelligence and senses are normal. One of the susceptibility genes, DYX1C1, has been implicated in neuronal migration, but little is known about its interactions and functions. As DYX1C1 was suggested to interact with the U-box protein CHIP (carboxy terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein), which also participates in the degradation of estrogen receptors alpha (ERalpha) and beta (ERbeta), we hypothesized that the effects of DYX1C1 might be at least in part mediated through the regulation of ERs. ERs have shown to be important in brain development and cognitive functions. Indeed, we show that DYX1C1 interacts with both ERs in the presence of 17beta-estradiol, as determined by co-localization, co-immunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assays. Protein levels of endogenous ERalpha or exogenous ERbeta were reduced upon over-expression of DYX1C1, resulting in decreased transcriptional responses to 17beta-estradiol. Furthermore, we detected in vivo complexes of DYX1C1 with ERalpha or ERbeta at endogenous levels along neurites of primary rat hippocampal neurons. Taken together, our data suggest that DYX1C1 is involved in the regulation of ERalpha and ERbeta, and may thus affect the brain development and regulate cognitive functions. These findings provide novel insights into the function of DYX1C1 and link neuronal migration and developmental dyslexia to the estrogen-signaling effects in the brain.
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| 14. |
- Massinen, Satu, et al.
(författare)
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Increased expression of the dyslexia candidate gene DCDC2 affects length and signaling of primary cilia in neurons.
- 2011
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 6:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- DCDC2 is one of the candidate susceptibility genes for dyslexia. It belongs to the superfamily of doublecortin domain containing proteins that bind to microtubules, and it has been shown to be involved in neuronal migration. We show that the Dcdc2 protein localizes to the primary cilium in primary rat hippocampal neurons and that it can be found within close proximity to the ciliary kinesin-2 subunit Kif3a. Overexpression of DCDC2 increases ciliary length and activates Shh signaling, whereas downregulation of Dcdc2 expression enhances Wnt signaling, consistent with a functional role in ciliary signaling. Moreover, DCDC2 overexpression in C. elegans causes an abnormal neuronal phenotype that can only be seen in ciliated neurons. Together our results suggest a potential role for DCDC2 in the structure and function of primary cilia.
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| 15. |
- Mastropasqua, Francesca, et al.
(författare)
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Deficiency of the Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein U locus leads to delayed hindbrain neurogenesis.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Biology open. - : The Company of Biologists. - 2046-6390. ; 12:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic variants affecting Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein U (HNRNPU) have been identified in several neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). HNRNPU is widely expressed in the human brain and shows the highest postnatal expression in the cerebellum. Recent studies have investigated the role of HNRNPU in cerebral cortical development, but the effects of HNRNPU deficiency on cerebellar development remain unknown. Here, we describe the molecular and cellular outcomes of HNRNPU locus deficiency during in vitro neural differentiation of patient-derived and isogenic neuroepithelial stem cells with a hindbrain profile. We demonstrate that HNRNPU deficiency leads to chromatin remodeling of A/B compartments, and transcriptional rewiring, partly by impacting exon inclusion during mRNA processing. Genomic regions affected by the chromatin restructuring and host genes of exon usage differences show a strong enrichment for genes implicated in epilepsies, intellectual disability, and autism. Lastly, we show that at the cellular level HNRNPU downregulation leads to an increased fraction of neural progenitors in the maturing neuronal population. We conclude that the HNRNPU locus is involved in delayed commitment of neural progenitors to differentiate in cell types with hindbrain profile.
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| 16. |
- Mataix-Cols, David, et al.
(författare)
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In search of environmental risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder : study protocol for the OCDTWIN project
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMC Psychiatry. - 1471-244X. ; 23:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unknown. Gene-searching efforts are well underway, but the identification of environmental risk factors is at least as important and should be a priority because some of them may be amenable to prevention or early intervention strategies. Genetically informative studies, particularly those employing the discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design, are ideally suited to study environmental risk factors. This protocol paper describes the study rationale, aims, and methods of OCDTWIN, an open cohort of MZ twin pairs who are discordant for the diagnosis of OCD. Methods: OCDTWIN has two broad aims. In Aim 1, we are recruiting MZ twin pairs from across Sweden, conducting thorough clinical assessments, and building a biobank of biological specimens, including blood, saliva, urine, stool, hair, nails, and multimodal brain imaging. A wealth of early life exposures (e.g., perinatal variables, health-related information, psychosocial stressors) are available through linkage with the nationwide registers and the Swedish Twin Registry. Blood spots stored in the Swedish phenylketonuria (PKU) biobank will be available to extract DNA, proteins, and metabolites, providing an invaluable source of biomaterial taken at birth. In Aim 2, we will perform within-pair comparisons of discordant MZ twins, which will allow us to isolate unique environmental risk factors that are in the causal pathway to OCD, while strictly controlling for genetic and early shared environmental influences. To date (May 2023), 43 pairs of twins (21 discordant for OCD) have been recruited. Discussion: OCDTWIN hopes to generate unique insights into environmental risk factors that are in the causal pathway to OCD, some of which have the potential of being actionable targets.
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| 17. |
- Matsson, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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SNP variations in the 7q33 region containing DGKI are associated with dyslexia in the Finnish and German populations.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Behavior Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0001-8244 .- 1573-3297. ; 41:1, s. 134-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Four genes, DYX1C1, ROBO1, DCDC2 and KIAA0319 have been studied both genetically and functionally as candidate genes for developmental dyslexia, a common learning disability in children. The identification of novel genes is crucial to better understand the molecular pathways affected in dyslectic individuals. Here, we report results from a fine-mapping approach involving linkage and association analysis in Finnish and German dyslexic cohorts. We restrict a candidate region to 0.3 Mb on chromosome 7q33. This region harbours the gene diacylglycerol kinase, iota (DGKI) which contains overlapping haplotypes associated with dyslexia in both Finnish and German sample sets.
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| 18. |
- Mohammad, Salahuddin
(författare)
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Investigating mental health disorders in relation to job and living related factors
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Job satisfaction plays an important role for life quality and health of working individuals. While studies have shown that self-reported mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression are associated with job satisfaction, a large population-based study exploring and comparing self-reported physician posed diagnosed conditions and their association with job satisfaction and job tenure is missing. First study addresses the gap along with exploring the impact of the neurotic personality trait and other possible contributing factors.Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience lower well-being as demonstrated epidemiologically mostly for children and adolescents. Further etiological investigation of inclusive wellbeing, in terms of five wellbeing spectrum (5-WBS) traits including neuroticism, depression, loneliness, life satisfaction and positive affect, among adults with ASD may deepen the understanding. Seond study aims to investigate if a genetic predisposition for ASD is associated with 5-WBS traits using polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis.In the first study, sixteen mental health disorders diagnosed by physicians, categorized into four major groups were investigated in relation to employment status (108,711 participants) and in relation to job satisfaction and job tenure (34,808 participants). Analyses were performed using linear regression adjusted for age, sex, TDI, BMI, education, physical activity, work hours and neuroticism. In the second study, PRS for ASD were constructed in the UK Biobank (N = 337,423), based on the GWAS conducted by Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (18,381 cases, 27,969 comparisons) using PRSice-2. First study showed Neurotic & Stress Disorders, Eating Disorders and Other Mental Health Disorders were strongly associated with lower job satisfaction and shorter job tenure in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Neuroticism was strongly linked to job satisfaction but was not associated with job tenure. Second study showed, ASD PRS significantly predicted associations with all 5-WBS traits, showing a positive association with the negative WBS traits, neuroticism (max R2 = 0.04%, P < 1x10-4, AUC 0.51), depression (max R2 = 0.06%, P < 1x10-4, AUC 0.51), loneliness (max R2 = 0.04%, P < 1x10-4, AUC 0.51) and a negative association with the positive WBS traits, life satisfaction (max R2 = 0.08%, P < 1x10-4, AUC 0.56), positive affect (max R2 = 0.10%, P < 1x10-4, AUC 0.53).Findings of first study clarify the complex relationship of mental health with job satisfaction and job tenure which is very important to understand in designing measures to improve working life participation of individuals with mental health issues. The findings of second study suggest that adults carrying a high load of susceptible SNPs for ASD are more likely to show a decreased well-being.
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| 19. |
- Ohlsson Gotby, Vide, et al.
(författare)
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Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism, Delayed Puberty and Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of neuroendocrinology (Print). - : Blackwell Publishing. - 0953-8194 .- 1365-2826. ; 31:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) is a rare disorder that manifests absent puberty and infertility. Genetic syndromes with hypogonadism, such as Klinefelter syndrome, are associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). However, it is not clear if patients with HH or transient delayed puberty in general, have an increased risk of NDDs.METHODS: We performed a register-based study on a national cohort of 264 patients with HH and 7447 patients diagnosed with delayed puberty that was matched with 2640 and 74470 controls, respectively. The outcome was defined as having any of the following NDD diagnoses; (1) autism spectrum disorder (ASD), (2) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or (3) intellectual disability (ID). Additional sensitivity analyses were performed to control for different parental and birth variables as well as diagnosed malformation syndromes and chromosomal anomalies (i.e., Down and Turner syndromes).RESULTS: Patients with HH had increased risk for being diagnosed with ASD (OR 5.7; 95% CI 2.6 - 12.6), ADHD (3.0; 1.8 - 5.1) and ID (18.0; 8.9 - 36.3) compared with controls. Patients with delayed puberty also had a significantly increased risk of being diagnosed with an NDD. These associations remained significant after adjustments.CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to demonstrate a significant association between HH, delayed puberty and NDDs in a population-based cohort. Clinicians should be aware of the overlap between these disorders. Further studies should explore the mechanisms behind these associations.
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| 20. |
- Portugal, Ana Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Infants' looking preferences for social versus non-social objects reflect genetic variation
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature Human Behaviour. - : Springer Nature. - 2397-3374. ; 8:1, s. 115-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To what extent do individual differences in infants’ early preference for faces versus non-facial objects reflect genetic and environmental factors? Here in a sample of 536 5-month-old same-sex twins, we assessed attention to faces using eye tracking in two ways: initial orienting to faces at the start of the trial (thought to reflect subcortical processing) and sustained face preference throughout the trial (thought to reflect emerging attention control). Twin model fitting suggested an influence of genetic and unique environmental effects, but there was no evidence for an effect of shared environment. The heritability of face orienting and preference were 0.19 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.04 to 0.33) and 0.46 (95% CI 0.33 to 0.57), respectively. Face preference was associated positively with later parent-reported verbal competence (β = 0.14, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.25, P = 0.014, R2 = 0.018, N = 420). This study suggests that individual differences in young infants’ selection of perceptual input—social versus non-social—are heritable, providing a developmental perspective on gene–environment interplay occurring at the level of eye movements.
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| 21. |
- Portugal, Ana Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Pupil size and pupillary light reflex in early infancy : heritability and link to genetic liability to schizophrenia
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-9630 .- 1469-7610. ; 63:9, s. 1068-1077
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Measures based on pupillometry, such as the pupillary light reflex (PLR) and baseline pupil size, reflect physiological responses linked to specific neural circuits that have been implicated as atypical in some psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions.MethodsWe investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the baseline pupil size and the PLR in 510 infant twins assessed at 5?months of age (281 monozygotic and 229 dizygotic pairs), and its associations with common genetic variants associated with neurodevelopmental (autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and mental health (bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia) conditions using genome-wide polygenic scores (GPSs).ResultsUnivariate twin modelling showed high heritability at 5?months for both pupil size (h2?=?.64) and constriction in response to light (h2?=?.62), and bivariate twin modeling indicated substantial independence between the genetic factors influencing each (rG?=?.38). A statistically significant positive association between infant tonic pupil size and the GPS for schizophrenia was found (??=?.15, p?=?.024), while there was no significant association with the GPS for autism or any other GPSs.ConclusionsThis study shows that some pupil measures are highly heritable in early infancy, although substantially independent in their genetic etiologies, and associated with common genetic variants linked to schizophrenia. It illustrates how genetically informed studies of infants may help us understand early physiological responses associated with psychiatric disorders which emerge much later in life.
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| 22. |
- Susanto, Evelyn, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling SHH-driven medulloblastoma with patient iPS cell-derived neural stem cells
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : NATL ACAD SCIENCES. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 117:33, s. 20127-20138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Here we describe a medulloblastoma model using In-duced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived human neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells generated from a Gorlin syndrome patient carry-ing a germline mutation in the sonic hedgehog (SHH) receptor PTCH1. We found that Gorlin NES cells formed tumors in mouse cerebellum mimicking human medulloblastoma. Retransplantation of tumor-isolated NES (tNES) cells resulted in accelerated tumor formation, cells with reduced growth factor dependency, en-hanced neurosphere formation in vitro, and increased sensitivity to Vismodegib. Using our model, we identified LGALS1 to be a GLI target gene that is up-regulated in both Gorlin tNES cells and SHH-subgroup of medulloblastoma patients. Taken together, we dem-onstrate that NES cells derived from Gorlin patients can be used as a resource to model medulloblastoma initiation and progression and to identify putative targets.
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| 23. |
- Tammimies, Kristiina, et al.
(författare)
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Association between copy number variation and response to social skills training in Autism Spectrum Disorder
- 2019
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Challenges in social communication and interaction are core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for which social skills group training (SSGT) is a commonly used intervention. SSGT has shown modest and heterogeneous effects. One of the major genetic risk factors in ASD is rare copy number variation (CNV). However, limited information exists whether CNV profiles could be used to aid intervention decisions. Here, we analyzed the rare genic CNV carrier status for 207 children, of which 105 received SSGT and 102 standard care as part of a randomized clinical trial for SSGT. We found that being a carrier of rare genic CNV did not have an impact on the SSGT outcome measured by the parent-report Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). However, when stratifying by pathogenicity and size of the CNVs, we identified that carriers of clinically significant and large genic CNVs (>500 kb) showed inferior SRS outcomes at post-intervention (P = 0.047 and P = 0.036, respectively) and follow-up (P = 0.008 and P = 0.072, respectively) when adjusting for standard care effects. Our study provides preliminary evidence that carriers of clinically significant and large genic CNVs might not benefit as much from SSGT as non-carriers. Our results indicate that genetic information might help guide the modifications of interventions in ASD.
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| 24. |
- Tammimies, Kristiina, et al.
(författare)
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Association between rare copy number variation and response to social skills training in autism spectrum disorder
- 2018
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Ingår i: bioRxiv. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Challenges in social communication and interaction are core symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for which social skills group training (SSGT) is a commonly used intervention. SSGT has shown modest but heterogeneous effects in clinical trials, and therefore identification of effect moderators could enable more precise intervention decisions. One of the major genetic risk factors in ASD are rare copy number variation (CNV). However, limited information exists whether rare CNVs profiles can be used to aid in intervention decisions. Therefore, we conducted the first study to date analyzing rare CNVs as genetic moderators in the outcome of SSGT in ASD. For this, we analyzed rare genic CNV carrier status of 207 children of which 105 received SSGT and 102 standard care as part of a recent randomized clinical trial for 12-weeks SSGT. We used mixed linear models to assess the association of being a CNV carrier, grouped by the effect and size of the CNVs and the primary response to SSGT, the parent-report Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) measured at post-intervention and 3-months follow-up. Additionally, we analyzed the secondary outcome assessments included parent-rated adaptive behaviors (ABAS-II) and trainer-rated clinical global impression (CGI). We show that being a carrier of any size rare genic CNV did not impact on the SSGT outcome. However, when stratifying the groups by size of the CNVs, we identified that carriers of large CNVs (>500 kb) showed inferior SRS outcomes at post-intervention (β = 15.35, 95% CI 2.86-27.84, P=0.017) and follow-up (β = 14.19, 95% CI 1.68-26.70, P=0.028). Similar results were shown for the parent-rated secondary outcome. In contrast, the carriers of small CNVs had better outcome at post-intervention (β = -1.20, 95 % CI -2.0 - -0.4 P = 0.003) but not at follow-up for the trainer-rated secondary outcome CGI. These results remained when we tested the specificity of the effect by including the standard care group and adjusting for IQ levels. While our study suggests that being a carrier of any size rare genic CNV did not impact the outcome, it provides preliminary evidence that carriers of high-risk CNVs might not benefit on SSGT as much as non-carriers. Our results indicate that genetic information eventually might help guide personalized intervention planning in ASD. We additionally highlight that more research is needed to understand the intervention needs of autistic individuals with specified molecular alterations.
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| 25. |
- Tammimies, Kristiina, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular networks of DYX1C1 gene show connection to neuronal migration genes and cytoskeletal proteins.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biological Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0006-3223 .- 1873-2402. ; 73:6, s. 583-90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The dyslexia susceptibility 1 candidate 1 (DYX1C1) gene has recently been associated with dyslexia and reading scores in several population samples. The DYX1C1 has also been shown to affect neuronal migration and modulate estrogen receptor signaling.METHODS: We have analyzed the molecular networks of DYX1C1 by gene expression and protein interaction profiling in a human neuroblastoma cell line.RESULTS: We find that DYX1C1 can modulate the expression of nervous system development and neuronal migration genes such as RELN and associate with a number of cytoskeletal proteins. We also show by live cell imaging that DYX1C1 regulates cell migration of the human neuroblastoma cell line dependent on its tetratricopeptide repeat and DYX1 protein domains. The DYX1 domain is a novel highly conserved domain identified in this study by multiple sequence alignment of DYX1C1 proteins recovered from a wide range of eukaryotic species.CONCLUSIONS: Our results contribute to the hypothesis that dyslexia has a developmental neurobiological basis by linking DYX1C1 with many genes involved in neuronal migration disorders.
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| 26. |
- Tammimies, Kristiina
(författare)
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Molecular studies of dyslexia : regulation and function of DYX1C1
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Developmental dyslexia is a specific reading disability characterized by unexpected difficulty in reading and writing despite adequate intelligence, education, normal senses and social environment. It is the most common childhood learning disorder affecting five to ten percent of school age children and it is more common among boys than girls. The core deficit in dyslexia is believed to involve phonological processing, the lowest level of the language system needed for reading. Dyslexia has a neurological basis demonstrated by anatomical and functional brain studies, in which differences have been found in the brains of dyslexic readers compared to normal readers. Subtle disturbances in neuronal migration during early brain development have been suggested to be one of the mechanisms leading to dyslexia. Dyslexia has a complex genetic basis that has been investigated by extensive family, twin- and molecular genetic studies. To date, many chromosomal loci, including the nine official dyslexia loci, have been linked to dyslexia, and a number of susceptibility genes within those regions have been identified. At least four of these candidate genes are involved in neuronal migration and brain development, otherwise their function it not well understood. The aim of this thesis was to study the regulation and function of the first dyslexia susceptibility gene DYX1C1. The DYX1C1 gene was identified when it was disrupted by a translocation segregating with dyslexia in one family. Since then, many association studies have supported its role in the etiology of dyslexia and general reading ability. In rodents, embryonic knockdown of Dyx1c1 results in deficits in neuronal migration leading to ectopias in the neocortex and hippocampus, and impairments in performing tasks related to learning and memory. In Paper 1, we characterized three dyslexia associated single nucleotide polymorphims in the regulatory regions of DYX1C1 and identified regulatory proteins binding to the genomic region upstream of the translation start site. We showed that these changes could have functional consequences and therefore could explain the association signal. In Papers II and III, we connected DYX1C1, both function and its regulation, to estrogen signaling. The expression of DYX1C1 increased after treatment with the steroid hormone, 17β-estradiol, which was due to the regulatory effect of the estrogen receptor β and TFII-I (III). Furthermore, we demonstrated that DYX1C1 interacts with the estrogen receptors α and β with functional consequences (II). In Paper IV, we scrutinized the function of DYX1C1 by characterizing the global gene-expression patterns after manipulating its expression levels in a neuroblastoma cell line and by identifying its protein interactions partners. By this means, we connected DYX1C1 to molecular pathways relevant to neuronal migration and nervous system development. For instance, the expression of neuronal migration genes RELN and DCX was changes after manipulating DYX1C1 levels. In addition, we studied the random cell migration of neuroblastoma cells after perturbation of DYX1C1 levels to confirm that the identified pathways and connections are functional. Indeed, DYX1C1 affects the velocity of the random cell migration and the protein domains in the C-terminus of DYX1C1 are needed for this. From the findings in this thesis, we can conclude that DYX1C1 is involved in several interesting molecular pathways and we provide starting points for future studies. In addition, we strengthen and further develop some of the already existing theories of the biological causes of dyslexia.
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| 27. |
- Viktorsson, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Infants’ sense of approximate numerosity : Heritability and link to other concurrent traits
- 2023
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Ingår i: Developmental Science. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1363-755X .- 1467-7687. ; 26:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract The ability to perceive approximate numerosity is present in many animal species, and emerges early in human infants. Later in life, it is moderately heritable and associated with mathematical abilities, but the etiology of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and its degree of independence from other cognitive abilities in infancy is unknown. Here, we assessed the phenotypic specificity as well as the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the ANS in a sample of 5-month-old twins (N = 514). We found a small-to-moderate but statistically significant effects of genetic factors on ANS acuity (heritability = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.33), but only when differences in numerosity were relatively large (1:4 ratio). Non-verbal ability assessed with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) was found to be heritable (0.47; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.57) and the phenotypic association between ANS acuity and non-verbal ability performance was close to zero. Similarly, we found no association between ANS acuity and general attention during the task. An unexpected weak but statistically significant negative association between ANS auity and scores on the receptive language scale of the MSEL was found. These results suggest that early ANS function may be largely independent from other aspects of non-verbal development. Further, variability in ANS in infancy seems to, to some extent, reflect genotypic differences in the population. Assessing 514 infant twins with eye tracking, we found that infant’s sense of approximate numerosity is heritable and not positively associated with concurrent attentional, cognitive or motor abilities. These results have implications for our understanding of development of mathematical ability and the link between cognitive abilities early in postnatal life.
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| 28. |
- Viktorsson, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Preferential looking to eyes versus mouth in early infancy : heritability and link to concurrent and later development
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-9630 .- 1469-7610. ; 64:2, s. 311-319
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundFrom birth, infants orient preferentially to faces, and when looking at the face, they attend primarily to eyes and mouth. These areas convey different types of information, and earlier research suggests that genetic factors influence the preference for one or the other in young children. MethodsIn a sample of 535 5-month-old infant twins, we assessed eye (relative to mouth) preference in early infancy, i.e., before neural systems for social communication and language are fully developed. We investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the preference for looking at eyes, and the association with concurrent traits and follow-up measures. ResultsEye preference was independent from all other concurrent traits measured, and had a moderate-to-high contribution from genetic influences (A = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.66). Preference for eyes at 5 months was associated with higher parent ratings of receptive vocabulary at 14 months. No statistically significant association with later autistic traits was found. Preference for eyes was strikingly stable across different stimulus types (e.g., dynamic vs. still), suggesting that infants' preference at this age does not reflect sensitivity to low-level visual cues. ConclusionsThese results suggest that individual differences in infants' preferential looking to eyes versus mouth to a substantial degree reflect genetic variation. The findings provide new leads on both the perceptual basis and the developmental consequences of these attentional biases.
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