Alessandra Consales, Letizia Toscano, Chiara Ceriotti, Valentina Tiraferri, Silvana Castaldi, Maria Lorella Giannì
From womb to world: mapping gut microbiota-related health literacy among Italian mothers, a cross-sectional study
BMC public health
chrfam7a uniquely human fusion gene associated neuropsychiatric disorders including alzheimers disease schizophrenia anxiety attention deficit disorder understanding physiological function chrfam7a human brain first step uncovering role disease chrfam7a identified potent modulator intracellular calcium upstream regulator rac1 leading actin cytoskeleton reorganization switch filopodia lamellipodia implicating efficient neuronal structure performed neurocognitivemri correlation exploratory study 46 normal human subjects explore effect chrfam7a human brain dual locus specific genotyping chrfam7a performed genomic dna determine copy number taqman assay orientation capillary sequencing chrfam7a alleles direct allele expressed protein level affects 7 nachr function direct allele carriers noncarriers compared neuropsychological mri measures subjects underwent neuropsychological testing measure motor timed 25foot walk test 9hole peg test cognitive processing speed symbol digit modalities test learning memory california verbal learning test immediate delayed recall brief visuospatial memory testrevised immediate delayed recall beck depression inventoryfast screen fatigue severity scale subjects underwent mri scanning 3 ge scanner using protocol global tissuespecific volumes determined using validated crosssectional algorithms including fsls structural image evaluation using normalization atrophy sienax fsls integrated registration segmentation tool first lesioninpainted images cognitive tests age years educationadjusted using analysis covariance ancova ageadjusted analysis covariance ancova performed mri data chrfam7a direct allele carrier noncarrier groups included 33 13 individuals respectively demographic variables age years education comparable chrfam7a direct allele carriers demonstrated upward shift cognitive performance including cognitive processing speed learning memory reaching statistical significance visual immediate recall fdr corrected p 0018 shift cognitive performance associated smaller whole brain volume uncorrected p 0046 lower connectivity resting state functional mri visual network fdr corrected p 0027 accentuating cognitive findings data suggest direct allele carriers harbor efficient brain consistent cellular biology actin cytoskeleton synaptic gain function larger human studies cognitive measures correlated mri functional imaging needed decipher impact chrfam7a brain function