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- Andreou, Dimitrios, et al.
(author)
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Associations between a locus downstream DRD1 gene and cerebrospinal fluid dopamine metabolite concentrations in psychosis
- 2016
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In: Neuroscience Letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3940 .- 1872-7972. ; 619, s. 126-130
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dopamine activity, mediated by the catecholaminergic neurotransmitter dopamine, is prominent in the human brain and has been implicated in schizophrenia. Dopamine targets five different receptors and is then degraded to its major metabolite homovanillic acid (HVA). We hypothesized that genes encoding dopamine receptors may be associated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) HVA concentrations in patients with psychotic disorder. We searched for association between 67 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the five dopamine receptor genes i.e., DRD1, DRD2, DRD3, DRD4 and DRD5, and the CSF HVA concentrations in 74 patients with psychotic disorder. Nominally associated SNPs were also tested in 111 healthy controls. We identified a locus, located downstream DRD1 gene, where four SNPs, rs11747728, rs11742274, rs265974 and rs11747886, showed association with CSF HVA concentrations in psychotic patients. The associations between rs11747728, which is a regulatory region variant, and rs11742274 with HVA remained significant after correction for multiple testing. These associations were restricted to psychotic patients and were absent in healthy controls. The results suggest that the DRD1 gene is implicated in the pathophysiology of psychosis and support the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.
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2. |
- Andreou, Dimitrios, et al.
(author)
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Cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolite concentrations as intermediate phenotypes between glutamate-related genes and psychosis
- 2015
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In: Psychiatry Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0165-1781 .- 1872-7123. ; 229:1-2, s. 497-504
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Glutamate-related genes have been associated with schizophrenia, but the results have been ambiguous and difficult to replicate. Homovanillic acid (HVA), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) are the major degradation products of the monoamines dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, respectively, and their concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), mainly HVA, have been associated with schizophrenia. In the present study, we hypothesized that CSF HVA, 5-HIAA and MHPG concentrations represent intermediate phenotypes in the association between glutamate-related genes and psychosis. To test this hypothesis, we searched for association between 238 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ten genes shown to be directly or indirectly implicated in glutamate transmission and CSF HVA, 5-HIAA and MHPG concentrations in 74 patients with psychotic disease. Thirty-eight nominally significant associations were found. Further analyses in 111 healthy controls showed that 87% of the nominal associations were restricted to the patients with psychosis. Some of the psychosis-only-associated SNPs found in the D-amino acid oxidase activator (DADA) and the kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) genes have previously been reported to be associated with schizophrenia. The present results suggest that CSF monoamine metabolite concentrations may represent intermediate phenotypes in the association between glutamate-related genes and psychosis.
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3. |
- Haukvik, Unn Kristin, et al.
(author)
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No effect of obstetric complications on basal ganglia volumes in schizophrenia
- 2010
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In: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0278-5846 .- 1878-4216. ; 34:4, s. 619-623
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Heterogeneous findings have been reported in studies of basal ganglia volumes in schizophrenia patients as compared to healthy controls. The basal ganglia contain dopamine receptors that are known to be involved in schizophrenia pathology and to be vulnerable to pre- and perinatal hypoxic insults. Altered volumes of other brain structures (e.g. hippocampus and lateral ventricles) have been reported in schizophrenia patients with a history of obstetric complications (005). This is the first study to explore if there is a relationship between OCs and basal ganglia volume in schizophrenia. Methods: Thorough clinical investigation (including information on medication) of 54 schizophrenia patients and 54 healthy control subjects was undertaken. MR images were obtained on a 1.5T scanner, and volumes of nucleus caudatus, globus pallidum, putamen, and nucleus accumbens were quantified automatically. Information on OCs was blindly collected from original birth records. Results: Unadjusted estimates demonstrated a relationship between increasing number of OCs and larger volume of nucleus accumbens in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. No statistically significant relationships were found between OCs and the basal ganglia volumes when controlled for intracranial volume, age, and multiple comparisons. There were no effects of typical versus atypical medication on the basal ganglia volumes. The patients with schizophrenia had larger globus pallidum volumes as compared to healthy controls, but there were no case-control differences for accumbens, putamen, or caudate volumes. Conclusion: The present results do not support the hypothesis that OCs are related to alterations in basal ganglia volume in chronic schizophrenia. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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4. |
- Gibson-Lopez, Matt, et al.
(author)
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On Vertex Guarding Staircase Polygons
- 2022
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In: LATIN 2022: Theoretical Informatics. LATIN 2022. - Cham : Springer. ; , s. 746-760
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we consider the variant of the art gallery problem where the input polygon is a staircase polygon. Previous works on this problem gave a 2-approximation for point guarding a staircase polygon (where guards can be placed anywhere in the interior of the polygon and we wish to guard the entire polygon). It is still unknown whether this point guarding variant is NP-hard. In this paper we consider the vertex guarding problem, where guards are only allowed to be placed at the vertices of the polygon, and we wish to guard only the vertices of the polygon. We show that this problem is NP-hard, and we give a polynomial-time 2-approximation algorithm.
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