A comparative study to assess drinking expectancy and functioning in alcohol dependent patients with and without co-morbid depression

Background: Alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) and major depressive disorder are highly prevalent. Much less is known about the expectancy of alcohol use in depressed patients with ADS. Few studies had compared the expectancy of alcohol use in ADS patients with and without co-morbid depression. Assessing the above factors may help to formulate effective prevention strategies. This study was designed to assess the difference in expectancy of alcohol use and functioning in patients with ADS with and without co-morbid depression.Methods: The difference in expectancy of alcohol use in 96 alcohol dependent patients, of which 24 had co-morbid depression and 72 without co-morbid depression was studied using drinking expectancy questionnaire. In addition, we compared the difference in functioning between the two groups using GAF.Results: Prevalence of depression in alcohol dependent patients was 25%. ADS patients with co-morbid depression had less expectancy about alcohol use for sexual enhancement and had lower level of functioning compared to ADS patients without depression.Conclusions: Less expectancy on sexual enhancement in patients with ADS and co-morbid depression could be possibly due to reduced libido in depressed patients. The observed lower functioning in ADS patients with co-morbid depression despite no difference in severity of alcohol use may be possibly explained by the added burden of both the diseases

Pattern of alcohol use and drinking antecedents in alcohol dependent patients with and without co-morbid depression: a comparative study

Background: Few studies have compared the pattern of alcohol use in Alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) patients with and without co-morbid depression. Assessing the pattern may throw light into prevention of relapses more effectively in alcohol dependent patients with co-morbid depression. This study was undertaken to assess the difference in pattern of drinking of alcohol in patients with alcohol dependence with and without co-morbid depression.Methods: A descriptive comparative study was designed to compare the difference in pattern of alcohol use in alcohol dependent patients with co-morbid depression and without co-morbid depression. Severity of dependence on alcohol was assessed using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Drinking pattern was assessed using Timeline Follow back Calender and Drinking Pattern Questionnaire. The data were statistically analysed.Results: Total 96 alcohol dependent patients (24 had co-morbid depression and 72 without co-morbid depression) were included in the study. There were no significant differences in alcohol use in both the groups in terms of AUDIT scores, amount of drinking, abstinence days or binge drinking. More frequent drinking was observed in circumstances related to emotional, physiological, financial and children related situations in patients with co-morbid depression (p<0.05).Conclusions: Drinking circumstances like emotional, physiological, financial and children related situations require more attention while assessing, treating and aiming at relapse of prevention in ADS patients with co-morbid depression

A pathway of signals regulating effector and initiator caspases in the developing Drosophila eye

Regulated cell death and survival play important roles in neural development. Extracellular signals are presumed to regulate seven apparent caspases to determine the final structure of the nervous system. In the eye, the EGF receptor, Notch, and intact primary pigment and cone cells have been implicated in survival or death signals. An antibody raised against a peptide from human caspase 3 was used to investigate how extracellular signals controlled spatial patterning of cell death. The antibody crossreacted specifically with dying Drosophila cells and labelled the activated effector caspase Drice. It was found that the initiator caspase Dronc and the proapoptotic gene head involution defective were important for activation in vivo. Dronc may play roles in dying cells in addition to activating downstream effector caspases. Epistasis experiments ordered EGF receptor, Notch, and primary pigment and cone cells into a single pathway that affected caspase activity in pupal retina through hid and Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins. None of these extracellular signals appeared to act by initiating caspase activation independently of hid. Taken together, these findings indicate that in eye development spatial regulation of cell death and survival is integrated through a single intracellular pathway

ArrayD: A general purpose software for Microarray design

BACKGROUND: Microarray is a high-throughput technology to study expression of thousands of genes in parallel. A critical aspect of microarray production is the design aimed at space optimization while maximizing the number of gene probes and their replicates to be spotted. RESULTS: We have developed a software called 'ArrayD' that offers various alternative design solutions for an array given a set of user requirements. The user feeds the following inputs: type of source plates to be used, number of gene probes to be printed, number of replicates and number of pins to be used for printing. The solutions are stored in a text file. The choice of a design solution to be used will be governed by the spotting chemistry to be used and the accuracy of the robot. CONCLUSIONS: ArrayD is a software for standard cartesian robots. The software aids users in preparing a judicious and elegant design. ArrayD is universally applicable and is available at

Assessing natural variations in gene expression in humans by comparing with monozygotic twins using microarrays

Quantitative variation in gene expression in humans is the outcome of various factors, including differences in genetic background, gender, age, and environment. However, the extent of the influence of these factors on gene expression is not clear. We attempted to address this issue by carrying out gene expression profiling in blood leukocytes with 13 individuals (including 5 pairs of monozygotic twins) on 10,000 genes using HG-U95Av2 oligonucleotide microarrays. The proportion of differentially expressed genes between monozygotic twins was low (up to 1.76%). Most of the variations belonged to the least variable category. These genes, exhibiting "random variations," did not show clear preference to any functional class, although "signaling and communication" and "immune and related functions" generally topped the list. The extent of variation in gene expression increased in comparisons between unrelated individuals (up to 14.13%). Most of the genes (89%) exhibiting random variations in twins also varied in expression in unrelated individuals. As with twins, signaling and communication topped the list, and substantial variations were observed in all three categories: least variable, moderately variable, and most variable. An important outcome of this study was that the housekeeping genes were nearly insensitive to random variations but appeared to be more susceptible to genetic differences. However, the highly expressed housekeeping genes exhibited low variation and appeared to be insensitive to all known factors. Gene expression profiling in monozygotic twins can provide useful data for the assessment of natural variation in gene expression in humans

Expoldb: expression linked polymorphism database with inbuilt tools for analysis of expression and simple repeats

BACKGROUND: Quantitative variation in gene expression has been proposed to underlie phenotypic variation among human individuals. A facilitating step towards understanding the basis for gene expression variability is associating genome wide transcription patterns with potential cis modifiers of gene expression. DESCRIPTION: EXPOLDB, a novel Database, is a new effort addressing this need by providing information on gene expression levels variability across individuals, as well as the presence and features of potentially polymorphic (TG/CA)(n )repeats. EXPOLDB thus enables associating transcription levels with the presence and length of (TG/CA)(n )repeats. One of the unique features of this database is the display of expression data for 5 pairs of monozygotic twins, which allows identification of genes whose variability in expression, are influenced by non-genetic factors including environment. In addition to queries by gene name, EXPOLDB allows for queries by a pathway name. Users can also upload their list of HGNC (HUGO (The Human Genome Organisation) Gene Nomenclature Committee) symbols for interrogating expression patterns. The online application 'SimRep' can be used to find simple repeats in a given nucleotide sequence. To help illustrate primary applications, case examples of Housekeeping genes and the RUNX gene family, as well as one example of glycolytic pathway genes are provided. CONCLUSION: The uniqueness of EXPOLDB is in facilitating the association of genome wide transcription variations with the presence and type of polymorphic repeats while offering the feature for identifying genes whose expression variability are influenced by non genetic factors including environment. In addition, the database allows comprehensive querying including functional information on biochemical pathways of the human genes. EXPOLDB can be accessed a

Hepatocytes Sensitized to Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Cytotoxicity Undergo Apoptosis through Caspase-dependent and Caspase-independent Pathways

Hepatocytes can be sensitized to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha toxicity by repression of NF-kappaB activation or inhibition of RNA synthesis. To determine whether both forms of sensitization lead to TNF-alpha cytotoxicity by similar mechanisms, TNF-alpha-induced cell death in RALA255-10G hepatocytes was examined following infection with an adenovirus, Ad5IkappaB, that blocks NF-kappaB activation or following cotreatment with actinomycin D (ActD). TNF-alpha treatment of Ad5IkappaB-infected cells resulted in 44% cell death within 6 h. ActD/TNF-alpha induced no death within 6 h but did lead to 37% cell death by 24 h. In both instances, cell death occurred by apoptosis and was associated with caspase activation, although caspase activation in ActD-sensitized cells was delayed. CrmA and chemical caspase inhibitors blocked Ad5IkappaB/TNF-alpha-induced cell death but did not inhibit ActD/TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis. A Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD) dominant negative decreased Ad5IkappaB/TNF-alpha- and ActD/TNF-alpha-induced cell death by 81 and 47%, respectively. However, downstream events differed, since Ad5IkappaB/TNF-alpha but not ActD/TNF-alpha treatment caused mitochondrial cytochrome c release. These results suggest that NF-kappaB inactivation and inhibition of RNA synthesis sensitize RALA255-10G hepatocytes to TNF-alpha toxicity through distinct cell death pathways that diverge below the level of FADD. ActD-induced hepatocyte sensitization to TNF-alpha cytotoxicity occurs through a FADD-dependent, caspase-independent pathway of apoptosis