Association between smoking and dopamine receptor D2 polymorphisms in male patients with schizophrenia / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To investigate the association between dopamine receptor D2(DRD2) polymorphisms and smoking in male patients with schizophrenia.Methods:Totally 773 patients with schizophrenia (567 smokers and 206 non-smokers) and 302 normal controls (168 smokers and 134 non-smokers) were recruited.The two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1800497 and rs1079597) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RELP).SHEsis genetic analysis platform was used to calculate linkage disequilibrium index and infer allele distribution and haplotype frequency.Results:There was no significant difference in two SNPs genotype and allele distributions between the patients and normal controls or between smokers and non-smokers in either patients or normal controls alone (Ps ＞ 0.05);the frequency estimations of haplotype C-A and T-G in patients with schizophrenia were higher than in normal controls (8.0％ vs.5.2％,10.2％ vs.4.1％,Ps ＜0.05),T-A (34.6％ vs.40.2％,P ＜0.05),whereas the frequency estimation of haplotype T-A in patients with schizophrenia was lower than in normal controls,and all the differences were statistically significant (34.6％ vs.40.2％,P ＜ 0.05).It was also observed that the frequency estimation of haplotype T-A in normal smokers was significantly lower than in normal non-smokers (2.5％ vs.6.1％,P ＜0.05).Conclusion:There may be a correlation between DRD2 polymorphisms and the susceptibility to schizophrenia,but not between DRD2 polymorphisms and smoking neither in patients with schizophrenia nor in normal controls.

Novel chinmedomics strategy for discovering effective constituents from ShenQiWan acting on ShenYangXu syndrome / 中国天然药物

Elucidation of the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is of importance for scientists of modern medicine to understand the value of TCM clinical experience, and it is necessary to have a biological language to scientifically describe the efficacy of TCM. With this background?Chinmedomics has been proposed by our team, which includes integrating serum pharmacochemistry and metabolomics technology, defining theory and research methods for expressing the efficacy of TCMs based on the biomarkers discovery of TCM syndrome and elucidating the efficacy of TCM formulae, discovering effective constituents, and finally elucidating the scientific value of TCM. In the present study, the innovative chinmedomics strategy was conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effects of ShenQiWan (SQW) acting on ShenYangXu (kidney-yang deficiency syndrome, KYDS). We analyzed the urine metabolic trajectory between the model and control groups, and identified the biomarkers by the multivariate analysis. We found that SQW caused significant restoration of abnormal metabolism of KYDs. Using the method of metabolomics, 17 potential urine biomarkers were analyzed through 4 repeated tests in our serial studies on SQW and KYDS. Under the premise of therapeutic efficacy, a total of 56 peaks were tentatively characterized in vivo by the use of serum pharmacochemistry. Correlation analysis between marker metabolites and in vivo constituents of SQW showed that 28 compositions had a close relationship with urine biomarkers of therapeutic effects, whichmight play a key role in the therapeutic effect of SQW. These compounds were imported into an online database to predict their targets. Twenty-three important potential targets were identified, which were related to the metabolism of steroid hormone, tryptophan utilization, and thyroid hormone. In conclusion, chinmedomics is a useful strategy for discovery of potentially effective constituents from complex TCM formulae.

Impaired prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle in Chinese patients with first-episode, medication-naïve schizophrenia / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Patients with schizophrenia have prominent abnormality in information processing that can be observed by measures of prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle reflex and PPI deficits have been considered as a candidate endophenotypic marker of schizophrenia. However, there has been little information on PPI and related measures in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. The research was to explore the deficits of acoustic startle reflex that might exist in Chinese patients with schizophrenia.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Startle response to acoustic stimuli, habituation, and PPI were examined in 31 Chinese patients with first-episode, medication-naïve schizophrenia and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy Chinese controls. At the same day of startle testing, psychopathological symptoms of the patients were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with healthy controls, patients exhibited the significant reduction in startle response and PPI deficits at 60 milliseconds (ms) intervals (PPI60, P < 0.05) but not at 30 or 120 ms intervals. Furthermore, there was a relatively strong correlation between PPI60 (P < 0.05) and scores of positive scale of PANSS in patients with schizophrenia.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our findings confirmed impaired PPI in Chinese patients with schizophrenia and suggested that a relationship between sensorimotor gating deficits and clinical symptoms of patients with schizophrenia might exist.</p>

Relationship between tardive dyskinesia and the polymorphism of superoxide dismutase val9Ala and efficacy of Chaihu Taoren Capsules on it / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relationship between efficacy of Chaihu Taoren Decoction (CTD) and the polymorphism of valine-alanine missense mutation of 9th codan (Val9Ala, T1183C) of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in patients with tardive dyskinesia (TD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Severity of TD was assessed by abnormal involuntary movement scale (AIMS), and the psychologic symptoms were rated by the positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS). The sample size consisted of 119 patients with TD assigned to the TD group, 129 patients of chronic schizophrenia with the general condition matched strictly with that of the enrolled TD patients assigned to the non-TD group, and 148 healthy persons assigned to the normal group. The gene distribution rate of Val9Ala gene was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, and the therapeutic effect of CTD on 36 patients with TD was observed after 12 weeks treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was no significant difference in genotype and allelic gene frequency of SOD Val9Ala among the TD, non-TD and normal groups (P > 0.05). Comparison of the AIMS score in TD patients with various Val9Ala genotypes showed that the difference of AIMS scores in patients with TT and CT genotype was not significant (P > 0.05), but CTD did show a better efficacy in TD patients with CT heterozygote than in those with TT homozygote (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The CTD could effectively relieve the symptoms of TD, its efficacy might be related with the genotype of SOD, and 9Ala is considered to be a protective factor for the susceptibility to TD.</p>