Project description:Post-marketing drug withdrawals can be associated with various events, ranging from safety issues such as reported deaths or severe side-effects, to a multitude of non-safety problems including lack of efficacy, manufacturing, regulatory or business issues. During the last century, the majority of drugs voluntarily withdrawn from the market or prohibited by regulatory agencies was reported to be related to adverse drug reactions. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of toxicity is of utmost importance for current and future drug discovery. Here, we present WITHDRAWN, a resource for withdrawn and discontinued drugs publicly accessible at http://cheminfo.charite.de/withdrawn. Today, the database comprises 578 withdrawn or discontinued drugs, their structures, important physico-chemical properties, protein targets and relevant signaling pathways. A special focus of the database lies on the drugs withdrawn due to adverse reactions and toxic effects. For approximately one half of the drugs in the database, safety issues were identified as the main reason for withdrawal. Withdrawal reasons were extracted from the literature and manually classified into toxicity types representing adverse effects on different organs. A special feature of the database is the presence of multiple search options which will allow systematic analyses of withdrawn drugs and their mechanisms of toxicity.
Project description:BackgroundSocial withdrawal is a core neuropsychiatric phenomenon in developmental psychopathology. Its presence predicts psychopathology across many domains, including depression, psychosis, autism, anxiety, and suicide. Withdrawn behavior is highly heritable, persistent, and characteristically worsens without intervention. To date, few studies have successfully identified genetic associations with withdrawn behavior, despite the abundance of evidence of its heritability. This may be due to reliance of categorical over dimensional measures of the behaviorally inhibited phenotype. The aim of this study is to identify associations between known psychiatric candidate genes and a dimensionally derived measure of withdrawn behavior.MethodsGenetic information was collected on 20 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from a custom-designed SNP chip and TAQMAN arrays of 4 variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) genes for 551 individuals from 187 families. Linear mixed modeling was employed to examine the relationship between genotypes of interest and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Withdrawn Behavior Subscale Score (WBS) while controlling for gender and age through multiple linear regressions.ResultsWithdrawn behavior was highly associated with polymorphism rs6314 of the serotonin receptor 2A (HTR2A) [p = .009, estimate = 0.310 (bootstrap 95% CI 0.155-0.448), bootstrap p = .001] and rs1800544 of the alpha 2-adrenergic (ADRA2A) [p = .001, estimate = -0.310 (bootstrap 95% CI -0.479 to -0.126), bootstrap p = .001] genes after correction for gender and age. The association between withdrawn behavior and ADRA2A was stronger for younger children.ConclusionsHTR2A and ADRA2A genes are associated with withdrawn behavior. This reinforces the role of catecholaminergic genes in the heritability of withdrawn behavior.
Project description:Fibromyalgia Microbiome Analysis: data from Ebiomedicine paper "Gut microbiome and serum metabolome analyses identify molecular biomarkers and altered glutamate metabolism in fibromyalgia" by Clos-Garcia, M. et al.
Project description:Embryofetal development is a critical process that needs a strict epigenetic control, however, perturbations in this balance might lead to the occurrence of congenital anomalies. It is known that anticonvulsants potentially affect epigenetics-related genes, however, it is not comprehended whether this unbalance could explain the anticonvulsants-induced fetal syndromes. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the expression of epigenetics-related genes in valproic acid, carbamazepine, or phenytoin exposure. We selected these three anticonvulsants exposure assays, which used murine or human embryonic stem-cells and were publicly available in genomic databases. We performed a differential gene expression (DGE) and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), focusing on epigenetics-related genes. Few epigenetics genes were differentially expressed in the anticonvulsants' exposure, however, the WGCNA strategy demonstrated a high enrichment of chromatin remodeling genes for the three drugs. We also identified an association of 46 genes related to Fetal Valproate Syndrome, containing SMARCA2 and SMARCA4, and nine genes to Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome, including PAX6, NEUROD1, and TSHZ1. The evaluation of stem-cells under drug exposure can bring many insights to understand the drug-induced damage to the embryofetal development. The candidate genes here presented are potential biomarkers that could help in future strategies for the prevention of congenital anomalies.
Project description:BackgroundThe American Academy of Neurology (AAN) does not recommend routine use of prophylactic antiepileptic drugs (pAEDs) in patients with newly diagnosed brain tumors. If used in the perioperative setting, discontinuation is suggested after the first postoperative week. It is unclear whether such recommendations are followed. Our objective was to compare our perioperative and long-term pAED use in glioma patients with AAN practice parameters.MethodsRetrospective chart review was performed on 578 glioma patients from 2006 to 2013. Seizures and AED use were assessed at surgery, 3 months postoperatively and death, last visit or 16 months postoperatively. Patients were divided into three groups at surgery: seizure-free with pAED, seizure-free without pAED, and seizure patients. Long-term pAED use was defined as continued use at 3 months postsurgery without seizures. pAEDs efficacy, factors influencing its use, and survival were examined.ResultsOut of 578 patients identified, 330 (57.1%) were seizure-naïve preoperatively. There were no significant differences in age, histology, tumor location or resection status between seizure-free populations with and without prophylaxis. Of 330 seizure-naïve patients, 205 (62.1%) received pAEDs at surgery. Ninety-six (46.9%) of those patients were still on pAEDs 3 months postsurgery (median use = 58 days). Rate of long-term prophylaxis use decreased by 13.5% over 6 years (70.3% in 2006; 56.8% in 2012). Phenytoin was preferred in 2006 (98.2%) with increasing use of levetiracetam over 6 years (44.6% in 2012). The only predictive factor for pAED use was complete resection (P = .0069). First seizure prevalence was similar in both seizure-free populations (P = .91). The seizure population had more men (P = .007), younger patients (P < .0001), lower-grade gliomas (P = .0003) and survived longer (P = .001) compared with seizure-free populations.ConclusionsIn our center, long-term prophylactic AED use is high, deviating from current AAN Guidelines. Corrective measures are warranted.
Project description:A major obstacle in treating drug addiction is the severity of opiate withdrawal syndrome, which can lead to unwanted relapse. Mitragynine is the major alkaloid compound found in leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a plant widely used by opiate addicts to mitigate the harshness of drug withdrawal. A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the effect of mitragynine on anxiety behavior, cortisol level and expression of stress pathway related genes in zebrafish undergoing morphine withdrawal phase. Adult zebrafish were subjected to two weeks chronic morphine exposure at 1.5 mg/L, followed by withdrawal for 24 hours prior to tests. Using the novel tank diving tests, we first showed that morphine-withdrawn zebrafish display anxiety-related swimming behaviors such as decreased exploratory behavior and increased erratic movement. Morphine withdrawal also elevated whole-body cortisol levels, which confirms the phenotypic stress-like behaviors. Exposing morphine-withdrawn fish to mitragynine however attenuates majority of the stress-related swimming behaviors and concomitantly lower whole-body cortisol level. Using real-time PCR gene expression analysis, we also showed that mitragynine reduces the mRNA expression of corticotropin releasing factor receptors and prodynorphin in zebrafish brain during morphine withdrawal phase, revealing for the first time a possible link between mitragynine's ability to attenuate anxiety during opiate withdrawal with the stress-related corticotropin pathway.