Susceptibility Genes and Neurological Disorders

Toxoplasmosis and Polygenic Disease Susceptibility Genes: Extensive Toxoplasma gondii Host/Pathogen Interactome Enrichment in Nine Psychiatric or Neurological Disorders

Toxoplasma gondii is not only implicated in schizophrenia and related disorders, but also in Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, cancer, cardiac myopathies, and autoimmune disorders. During its life cycle, the pathogen interacts with ~3000 host genes or proteins. Susceptibility genes for multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, childhood obesity, Par...

Stem Cell Therapy in Pediatric Neurological Disorders

Pediatric neurological disorders including muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injury are defined as a heterogenous group of diseases, of which some are known to be genetic. The two significant features represented for stem cells, leading to distinguish them from other cell types are addressed as below: they can renew themselves besides the ability to differentiate into cells wi...

Neurological Disorders

Historically, policy makers and researchers have used mortality statistics as the principal measure of the seriousness of diseases, based on which countries and organizations have launched disease control programs. Mortality statistics alone, however, underestimate the suffering caused by diseases that may be nonfatal but cause substantial disability. Many neurological and psychiatric condition...

Mental Health and Neurological Disorders

The Identification of Novel Susceptibility Genes Involved in Anxiety Disorders

The etiology of anxiety disorders remains incompletely understood. Clear evidence for a genetic component has been proposed; however, there is also an increasing focus on environmental factors and the interaction between these and the genetic components that may mediate (anxiety) disorder pathogenesis. No single gene or genetic component has been explicitly identified as being involved in the d...