[Expression of proBNP and NT-proBNP in Sudden Death of Coronary Heart Disease]

OBJECTIVES

To study the expression change of pro-brain natriuretic peptide （proBNP） and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide （NT-proBNP） in sudden death of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, and to explore its application in forensic diagnosis.

METHODS

Myocardial and blood samples were collected from normal control group, sudden death of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease group and single coronary stenosis group （20 cases in each group）. The expression of proBNP in myocardial samples were detected by immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting, and that of BNP mRNA were detected by reverse transcription PCR （RT-PCR）. The content of NT-proBNP in plasma were detected by ELISA.

RESULTS

Immunohistochemical staining showed positive expression of proBNP in both sudden death of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease group and single coronary stenosis group. There was no positive expression in normal control group. For sudden death of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease group and single coronary stenosis group, the relative expression of proBNP protein and BNP mRNA in myocardial tissue and the NT-proBNP content in plasma were higher than that of normal control group （P<0.05）. The NT-proBNP content in plasma of sudden death of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease group was higher than that of single coronary stenosis group （P<0.05）.

CONCLUSIONS

In myocardial ischemia condition, the higher expression of proBNP in cardiac muscle cell shows that the detection of NT-proBNP in plasma can be useful to differentially diagnose the degree of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease and determine whether the sudden death due to coronary atherosclerotic heart disease.

A comprehensive review of microRNA-related polymorphisms in gastric cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules of about 22 nucleotides in length. miRNAs are highly conserved in both plants and animals, and function as gene regulators by binding to the 3'-untranslated region of target mRNAs for cleavage and/or translational repression. miRNA biogenesis, stability, and regulation of expression are strongly sequence dependent. Sequence variants, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in pri-miRNA, pre-miRNA, promoter regions, or miRNA-target sites, can influence miRNA function, thereby contributing to the pathological features of human disease. In this review, we focus on miRNA-related SNPs in gastric cancer and comprehensively analyze some commonly studied SNPs.

A new single-nucleotide mutation (rs362719) of the reelin (RELN) gene associated with schizophrenia in female Chinese Han

Reelin is an extracellular signaling protein that plays an important role in the development of the central nervous system. Post-mortem studies have shown lower reelin protein levels in the brains of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder compared with controls. Genetic studies have also shown that mutations in the reelin gene (RELN) increase the risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We evaluated whether an RELN gene variant, rs362719, which has been associated with increased susceptibility to bipolar disorder, is also associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia. We included 405 Chinese Han schizophrenia patients and 390 controls in our study. The polymorphism was genotyped by PCR and RFLP methods. We found a significant difference in allele frequency distribution (P< 0.05) between schizophrenia patients and controls. The frequency of the A allele was significantly higher in schizophrenia patients than in healthy controls. The effect of SNP rs362719 on allele distribution was significant in female (P < 0.05) but not in male participants (P = 0.473). Besides the gender factor, demographic and clinical characteristics of the rs362719 genotype groups were also analyzed using the chi-square test, but no significant differences were found. We conclude that rs362719 of the RELN gene is associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia in Chinese Han, possibly through a gender-specific mechanism. Further studies will be needed to confirm this genetic risk factor for schizophrenia.

Association study of polymorphisms in the promoter region of DRD4 with schizophrenia, depression, and heroin addiction

This study investigated the possible association between three functional polymorphisms in the promoter region of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene and schizophrenia, depression, and heroin addiction. Genomic DNA was isolated from the venous blood leukocytes of 322 unrelated patients with schizophrenia, 156 patients with depression, 300 patients with heroin addiction, and 300 healthy unrelated individuals. Polymorphisms in the promoter region of DRD4 (-120 bp duplication, -616C/G, and -521C/T) were genotyped using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis. Genotype and allele were analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. Results of this analysis indicated that there is a strong finding of -120 bp duplication allele frequencies with schizophrenia (p=0.008) and weak finding with -1240 L/S and for paranoid schizophrenia (p=0.022). Interestingly, there is a stronger finding with -521 C/T allele frequencies with heroin dependence (p=0.0002). These observations strongly suggest that the -120-bp duplication polymorphism of DRD4 is associated with schizophrenia and that the -521 C/T polymorphism is associated with heroin addiction.