OBJECTIVETo assess the association of cognitive functions with gender, age, education and polymorphism of dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene in healthy adults.

METHODSFour hundred and fifty-five healthy participants have completed 3 cognitive function tests including Tower of Hanoi (TOH), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test (TMT). Peripheral blood samples were collected from all participants, and genomic DNA was extracted according to a standard phenol-chloroform procedure. Rs3758653 in the promoter region of the DRD4 gene was genotyped using Illumina GoldenGate genotyping assay.

RESULTSMales have performed better than females in terms of TOH executive time and TOH total score, but did worse in TOH planning time. Most of the measured cognitive domains were affected by age and education. Cognitive ability has decreased along with increased age and decline of educational years. The polymorphism of rs3758653 has mainly correlated with the TOH executive time. Compared with A allele carriers, G allele carriers did worse in TOH executive time.

CONCLUSIONGender, age, education and the rs3758653 polymorphism of the DRD4 gene play an important role in cognitive functions in healthy adults.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Cognition ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Receptors, Dopamine D4 ; genetics ; Sex Factors ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of risperidone, an antipsychotic drug, on the Akt-GSK3β pathway and the role of PI3K in dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) expression and Akt-GSK3β signal pathway.

METHODSHuman glioma cells (U251) were cultured in vitro. Cells without any treatment as control, Western blotting was used for measuring the expression of Akt (Thr308 and Ser473) and GSK3β (Ser9) protein phosphorylation by risperidone and LY294002 in U251 cell, and real-time PCR was used for detecting the expression of DRD2 mRNA.

RESULTSRisperidone has significantly enhanced the expression of phosphorylated Akt and phosphorylated GSK3β (P< 0.05), but did not alter the mRNA expression of DRD2. LY294002 could reduce the phosphorylation of Akt and GSK3β (P< 0.01, P< 0.05), and also decrease the DRD2 mRNA (P<0 .05).

CONCLUSIONRisperidone can activate the Akt-GSK3β signaling pathway in the U251 cells, and PI3K is a common regulatory site in Akt-GSK3β signaling and D2 receptor gene expression.

Antipsychotic Agents ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Glioma ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta ; Humans ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Phosphorylation ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; genetics ; metabolism ; Risperidone ; pharmacology ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects

OBJECTIVETo explore the association of a functional polymorphism Val158Met of COMT gene and attention and executive function in first-episode treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

METHODSTrail making test (TMT) and clinical performances were evaluated in 103 first-episode treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia and 99 healthy controls. Polymorphism of COMT Val158Met was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. A general linear model was used to investigate the effect of genotype subgroups on the attention and executive function.

RESULTSThere was a significant difference between control subjects and patients with schizophrenia on the TMT-A and B. However, no significant difference among Val/Val, Val/Met and Met/Met on the TMT-A and B in control subjects and patients with schizophrenia was detected.

CONCLUSIONThe association among COMT Met variant and trail making testing (attention and executive function) has been replicated. However, no association of COMT Met variant with disruption of dopaminergic influence on neurocognitive function was detected. This may be due to the heterogeneity of population.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Amino Acid Substitution ; Attention ; physiology ; Catechol O-Methyltransferase ; genetics ; Executive Function ; physiology ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Schizophrenia ; genetics ; physiopathology ; Schizophrenic Psychology ; Trail Making Test ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo assess the association of cognitive impairment and clinical symptoms in first-episode schizophrenia with the Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphism of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene.

METHODSFor 87 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 76 healthy controls, the Val66Met polymorphism was determined with a Taqman Assay-on-Demand method. Wechsler intelligence test was carried out for all participants. Correlation of cognitive impairment with clinical severity was also analyzed.

RESULTSThe patients were significantly lower in total IQ, verbal IQ and performance IQ compared to the controls. The lower total IQ (F=4.59, P= 0.01) and verbal IQ (F=4.44, P=0.01) were influenced by genetic factors and diagnostic interaction. The vertal IQ of Val/Val patients was significantly lower than those of Val/Met and Met/Met carriers. For the control group, the verbal IQ of Met/Met carriers was lower than that of Val/Met carriers, and the total IQ of Met/Met carriers was lower than those of Val/Met and Val/Val carriers. For the patient group, the total IQ of Val/Val carriers was negatively correlated with positive symptoms (r=-0.65, P=0.03) and thought disorders (r=-0.61, P=0.02).

CONCLUSIONCognitive impairment in first-episode schizophrenic patients is associated with the Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene, and has an important clinical relevance.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; genetics ; Case-Control Studies ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; genetics ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; genetics ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; genetics ; Schizophrenia ; genetics ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE To explore the biological processes and pathways associated with memory function which may be regulated by gene promoter methylation. METHODS The genome-wide promoter methylation statuses in 9 healthy individuals were analyzed with a Multiplex HG18 CpG Promoter chip. Genes with promoter methylation statuses strongly correlated with both immediate and delayed visual memory function were preceded for pathway and physical interactions analysis. RESULTS Sixty nine genes have been correlated with both immediate and delayed visual memory functions. Twenty two pathways, with a Q-value of < 0.05, were identified by the pathway and physical interactions analysis, which included energy metabolism, axon guidance, tyrosine kinase activity, anterograde synaptic vesicle transport, and leukocyte migration and differentiation. CONCLUSION Pathways related with memory function may be regulated by DNA methylation.
Adolescent ; Adult ; DNA Methylation ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Memory ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Signal Transduction ; physiology

Objective: To understand the consistency of ALK Ventana-D5F3 immunohistochemistry (IHC) interpretation in Chinese lung adenocarcinoma among histopathologists from different hospitals, and to recommend solution for the problems found during the interpretation of ALK IHC in real world, with the aim of the precise selection of patients who can benefit from ALK targeted therapy. Methods: This was a multicenter and retrospective study. A total of 109 lung adenocarcinoma cases with ALK Ventana-D5F3 IHC staining were collected from 31 lung cancer centers in RATICAL research group from January to June in 2018. All cases were scanned into digital imaging with Ventana iSCANcoreo Digital Slide Scanning System and scored by 31 histopathologists from different centers according to ALK binary (positive or negative) interpretation based on its manufacturer′s protocol. The cases with high inconsistency rate were further analyzed using FISH/RT-PCR/NGS. Results: There were 49 ALK positive cases and 60 ALK negative cases, confirmed by re-evaluation by the specialist panel. Two cases (No. 2302 and No.2701) scored as positive by local hospitals were rescored as negative, and were confirmed to be negative by RT-PCR/FISH/NGS. The false interpretation rate of these two cases was 58.1% (18/31) and 48.4% (15/31), respectively. Six out of 31 (19.4%) pathologists got 100% accuracy. The minimum consistency between every two pathologists was 75.8%.At least one pathologist gave negative judgement (false negative) or positive judgement (false positive) in the 49 positive or 60 negative cases, accounted for 26.5% (13/49), 41.7% (25/60), respectively, with at least one uncertainty interpretation accounted for 31.2% (34/109). Conclusion There are certain heterogeneities and misclassifications in the real world interpretation of ALK-D5F3 IHC test, which need to be guided by the oncoming expert consensus based on the real world data.