No abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic disease presented with psychotic symptoms, negative symptoms, impairment in the reward system, and widespread neurocognitive deterioration.Disruption of synaptic connections in neural circuits is responsible for the disease's development and progression. Because deterioration in synaptic connections results in the impaired effective processing of information. Although structural impairments of the synapse, such as a decrease in dendritic spine density, have been shown in previous studies, functional impairments have also been revealed with the development of genetic and molecular analysis methods. In addition to abnormalities in protein complexes regulating exocytosis in the presynaptic region and impaired vesicle release, especially, changes in proteins related to postsynaptic signaling have been reported.In particular, impairments in postsynaptic density elements, glutamate receptors, and ion channels have been shown. At the same time, effects on cellular adhesion molecular structures such as neurexin, neuroligin, and cadherin family proteins were detected. Of course, the confusing effect of antipsychotic use in schizophrenia research should also be considered. Although antipsychotics have positive and negative effects on synapses, studies indicate synaptic deterioration in schizophrenia independent of drug use. In this review, the deterioration in synapse structure and function and the effects of antipsychotics on the synapse in schizophrenia will be discussed.

Aim:To investigate the possible effects of aqueous garlic extract on the oxidant/antioxidant status and apoptosis in 32D (wild type mouse myeloid cell = normal) and 32Dp210 (BCR-ABL fusion gene (+) mouse myeloid cell = Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia cells) cell lines. Materials and methods:Aqueous garlic extract (10% w/v) was added into the cell line media with 2 different final concentrations (0.4% and 1%). At 0 h and at 24, 48, and 72 h later, the oxidant (malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and xanthine oxidase (XO) enzyme activity) and antioxidant (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), and catalase (CAT) enzyme activities) parameters were measured in the cell lines.Results: It was observed that the garlic extract caused no change in the XO and antioxidant enzyme activities, but it increased the MDA level in the 32D cell line. However, significant increases were found in the MDA level, XO, and antioxidant enzyme activities in the 32Dp210 cell line treated by the garlic extract. Additionally, it was shown that garlic extract had antiproliferative and apoptotic effects on both cell lines. The most effective apoptotic dose was found to be 0.4% (w/v), and at this concentration the death risk of the 32Dp210 cell line was calculated at 2.08 times higher than that of the 32D cell line. Conclusion:It has been suggested that garlic directly causes oxidant stress in the 32D cell line owing to its own oxidant ingredients, and that the oxidant stress created by garlic in the 32Dp210 cell line might occur through increased XO activity and/or its oxidant ingredients. Additionally, antioxidant enzyme activities were found to increase in the 32Dp210 cell line; it would seem that this compensatory change could not prevent the oxidant stress created. We think that the oxidant potential of garlic extract might play a part in its possible anticancer potential, previously supposed by several investigators.

Background: RASD1 encodes Dexamethasone-induced Ras-related protein 1 (Dexras1), a protein with a critical role in signal transduction in neurons. There is a strong suspicion that dysfunction of Dexras1 might contribute to the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric diseases. Related to its functions in intracellular signaling pathways, Dexras1 has a potential role in the etiology of schizophrenia because of its close interaction with NOS1, NOS1AP, and NMDAR, which have previously been associated with schizophrenia. Aims: To investigate the association of RASD1 variants with schizophrenia in a selected cohort from Turkey. Study Design: A case-control study. Methods: We performed targeted sequencing for the two exons, single intron, and untranslated regions of RASD1 gene in 200 individuals with schizophrenia and 100 healthy controls of Turkish origin. Results: Two rare variants, RASD1 (NM_016084.5): c.722A>T and c*31G>A were identified in individuals with schizophrenia but not in any controls. The c.722A>T was found in a single individual with schizophrenia and is a missense heterozygous variant in the second exon of RASD1 , which is extremely rare in GnomAD. The other variant, c*31G>A, which was found in another individual from this schizophrenia cohort, has not been reported previously. Seven previously identified common single nucleotide polymorphisms were also detected; however, they were not significantly associated with schizophrenia in this study cohort. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that rare variants of RASD1 might be contributing to the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. Further studies are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanism of this association.

This study is to survey 10 Y-STR loci in 241 males from Turkey.In this study, the 241 healthy and unrelated males living in different parts of Turkey for at least three generations were included. Genomic DNAs were isolated from peripheral blood samples by standard phenol-chloroform extraction method. 10 Y-STR loci including DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS388, DYS389I/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, and YCAIIa/b were analyzed by using PCR and denaturing PAGE.Allele frequencies, gene diversities and haplotype frequencies were analyzed. Gene diversity per locus varied from 0.5788 (DYS388) to 0.8903 (DYS385a/b). The numbers of haplotypes in minHt recommended by YCC and Ht10 have been 208 and 186, respectively. When our minHt haplotypes frequencies compared with the other seven populations, we have found statistically significant differences between our results and other populations (p < 0.01) except that Czech population (p > 0.05). We suggest that an alternative haplotype designated as aHt maybe alternative to minHt in respect of its Y-STR content with the highest gene diversity value. The aHt haplotype has found a higher discriminatory potential than minHt haplotype with a better P d combined value (0.9999936 vs 0.9999836) and has higher average gene diversity per locus (0.7834 vs 0.7518) in Turkish population.aHt haplotype can be proposed as an alternative to minHt in paternity testing and forensic medicine applications involving Turkish male population. This study has also provided additional information to the framework of variation involving 10 Y-STR loci as well as a further contribution to the Y-STR database for Turkish male population.