Gene expression profiling of the dorsolateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex polygenic disorder of unknown etiology. Over 3,000 candidate genes associated with schizophrenia have been reported, most of which being mentioned only once. Alterations in cognitive processing - working memory, metacognition and mentalization - represent a core feature of schizophrenia, which indicates the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in the pathophysiology of this disorder. Hence we compared the gene expression in postmortem tissue from the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC, Brodmann's area 46), and the medial part of the orbitofrontal cortex (MOFC, Brodmann's area 11/12), in six patients with schizophrenia and six control brains. Although in the past decade several studies performed transcriptome profiling in schizophrenia, this is the first study to investigate both hemispheres, providing new knowledge about possible brain asymmetry at the level of gene expression and its relation to schizophrenia. We found that in the left hemisphere, twelve genes from the DLPFC and eight genes from the MOFC were differentially expressed in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls. In the right hemisphere there was only one gene differentially expressed in the MOFC. We reproduce the involvement of previously reported genes TARDBP and HNRNPC in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and report seven novel genes: SART1, KAT7, C1D, NPM1, EVI2A, XGY2, and TTTY15. As the differentially expressed genes only partially overlap with previous studies that analyzed other brain regions, our findings indicate the importance of considering prefrontal cortical regions, especially those in the left hemisphere, for obtaining disease-relevant insights

Zinc phosphide poisoning

Opisano je 11 smrtnih slučajeva otrovanja cinkovnim fosfidom. Navedeni su simptomi otrovanja, nalaz kod obdukcije te kemijska analiza. Pniloženim tabelarnim prikazom 15 slučajeva pokušaja ubojstva ukazuje se na učestalost kriminalnog otrovanja cinkovim fosfidom.11 fatal and 15 non-fatal cases of zinc phosphide poisoning are presented, most of them of suicidal origin. The following symptoms were observed: vomiting, abdominal cramps, coated tongue, thirst, the odour of breath resembling decayed fish or garlic. and in some cases mydriasis, accelerated and weakened pulse rate, decrease in blood pressure and temperature, cyanotic lips and bronchial rales. The patients died conscious, 30-40 hours after taking the poison. Postmortem examinations showed no characteristic findings: congestion, oedema of the lungs, the brain and leptomeninges; petechial hemorrhages (subepicardial, subpleural, and sometimes on the mucous membranes of stomach and small intestine; in a few cases fatty infiltration and degeneration of the liver and kidney, as well as fatty degeneration of the heart muscle and the endothelium of the brain capillaries. Zinc phosphide was always found in gastric juice even after vomiting and gastric lavage. A method is described for the qualitative analysis of phosphine in food and organs, and the results of the quantitative analysis of zinc are given

Zinc phosphide poisoning

Opisano je 11 smrtnih slučajeva otrovanja cinkovnim fosfidom. Navedeni su simptomi otrovanja, nalaz kod obdukcije te kemijska analiza. Pniloženim tabelarnim prikazom 15 slučajeva pokušaja ubojstva ukazuje se na učestalost kriminalnog otrovanja cinkovim fosfidom.11 fatal and 15 non-fatal cases of zinc phosphide poisoning are presented, most of them of suicidal origin. The following symptoms were observed: vomiting, abdominal cramps, coated tongue, thirst, the odour of breath resembling decayed fish or garlic. and in some cases mydriasis, accelerated and weakened pulse rate, decrease in blood pressure and temperature, cyanotic lips and bronchial rales. The patients died conscious, 30-40 hours after taking the poison. Postmortem examinations showed no characteristic findings: congestion, oedema of the lungs, the brain and leptomeninges; petechial hemorrhages (subepicardial, subpleural, and sometimes on the mucous membranes of stomach and small intestine; in a few cases fatty infiltration and degeneration of the liver and kidney, as well as fatty degeneration of the heart muscle and the endothelium of the brain capillaries. Zinc phosphide was always found in gastric juice even after vomiting and gastric lavage. A method is described for the qualitative analysis of phosphine in food and organs, and the results of the quantitative analysis of zinc are given