Magnetic resonance imaging study; does the olfactory bulb volume change in major depression?

Goal: The olfactory region function disorders and olfactory bulb volume changes in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders are defined. In this study, the olfactory bulb values of patients diagnosed with major depression in accordance with DMS-IV criteria, are measured with MRI, and these values are compared with the values of healthy volunteers to see if there are any statistically significant changes.Method: The study was carried out with 20 healthy volunteers and 20 patients who had been diagnosed with acute major depression in accordance with ‘diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders’ (DMS) IV criteria and have been getting treatment for more than 2 years in Istanbul Education and Research Hospital. 1,5 Tesla MRI were used in 40 cases, and the olfactory bulb volume on two hemispheres were measured separately.Results: Contrary to the former studies, we found no statistically significant difference between the olfactory bulb volume measurements of the control group and the group diagnosed with major depression

Change in gene expression levels of GABA, glutamate and neurosteroid pathways due to acoustic trauma in the cochlea

The characteristic feature of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the loss or malfunction of the outer hair cells (OHC) and the inner hair cells (IHC) of the cochlea. 90-95% of the spiral ganglion neurons, forming the cell bodies of cochlear nerve, synapse with the IHCs. Glutamate is the most potent excitatory neurotransmitter for IHC-auditory nerve synapses. Excessive release of glutamate in response to acoustic trauma (AT), may cause excitotoxicity by causing damage to the spiral ganglion neurons (SGN) or loss of the spiral ganglion dendrites, post-synaptic to the IHCs. Another neurotransmitter, GABA, plays an important role in the processing of acoustic stimuli and central regulation after peripheral injury, so it is potentially related to the regulation of hearing function and sensitivity after noise. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of AT on the expressions of glutamate excitotoxicity, GABA inhibition and neurosteroid synthesis genes

Analysis of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 coding variants as a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 from 946 whole-exome sequencing data in the Turkish population

Heterogeneity in symptoms associated with COVID-19 in infected patients remains unclear. ACE2 and TMPRSS2 gene variants are considered possible risk factors for COVID-19. In this study, a retrospective comparative genome analysis of the ACE2 and TMPRSS2 variants from 946 whole-exome sequencing data was conducted. Allele frequencies of all variants were calculated and filtered to remove variants with allele frequencies lower than 0.003 and to prioritize functional coding variants. The majority of detected variants were intronic, only two ACE2 and three TMPRSS2 nonsynonymous variants were detected in the analyzed cohort. The main ACE2 variants that putatively have a protective or susceptibility effect on SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been determined in the Turkish population. The Turkish genetic makeup likely lacks any ACE2 variant that increases susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. TMPRSS2 rs75603675 and rs12329760 variants that were previously defined as common variants that have different allele frequencies among populations and may have a role in SARS-CoV-2 attachment to host cells were determined in the population. Overall, these data will contribute to the formation of a national variation database and may also contribute to further studies of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the Turkish population and differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection among other populations