Browsing by Author "Freimer, Nelson B."

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    Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men
    (National Academy of Sciences, 2023) Zugman, Andrés; Alliende, Luz María; Medel Sierralta, Vicente Nicolás; Bethlehem, Richard A. I.; Seidlitz, Jakob; Ringlein, Grace; Arango, Celso; Arnatkeviciutė, Aurina; Asmal, Laila; Bellgrove, Mark; Benegal, Vivek; Bernardo, Miquel; Billeke, Pablo; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Bressan, Rodrigo; Busatto, Geraldo F.; Castro, Mariana N.; Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany; Compte, Albert; Costanzi, Monise; Czepielewski, Leticia; Dazzan, Paola; Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo de la; Forti, Marta di; Díaz-Caneja, Covadonga M.; Díaz-Zuluaga, Ana María; Plessis, Stefan du; Duran, Fabio L. S.; Fittipaldi, Sol; Fornito, Alex; Freimer, Nelson B.; Gadelha, Ary; Gama, Clarissa S.; Garani, Ranjini; García-Rizo, Clemente; González Campo, Cecilia; González-Valderrama, Alfonso; Guinjoan, Salvador; Holla, Bharath; Ibáñez, Agustín; Jackowski, Andrea; Ivanovic, Daniza; León-Ortiz, Pablo; Lochner, Christine; López Jaramillo, Carlos; Luckhoff, Hilmar; Massuda, Raffael; McGuire, Philip; Miyata, Jun; Mizrahi, Romina; Murray, Robin; Ozerdem, Aysegul; Pan, Pedro M.; Parellada, Mara; Phahladira, Lebogan; Ramírez Mahaluf, Juan P.; Reckziegel, Ramiro; Marques Tiago Reis; Reyes-Madrigal, Francisco; Roos, Annerine; Rosa, Pedro; Salum, Giovanni; Scheffler, Freda; Schumann, Gunter; Serpa, Mauricio; Stein, Dan J.; Tepper, Angeles; Tiego, Jeggan; Ueno, Tsukasa; Undurraga, Juan; Undurraga, Eduardo A.; Valdés-Sosa, Pedro; Valli, Isabel; Villarreal, Mirta; Winton-Brown, Toby T.; Yalin, Nefize; Zamorano, Francisco; Zanetti, Marcus V.; Veda, C.; Winkler, Anderson M.; Pine, Daniel S.; Evans-Lacko, Sara; Crossley Karmelic, Nicolas Andrés
    Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women’s worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women’s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.
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    Diversity matters: opportunities in the study of the genetics of psychotic disorders in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America
    (2021) Fonseca, Lais; Sena, Brena F.; Crossley, Nicolás; Lopez Jaramillo, Carlos; Koenen, Karestan; Freimer, Nelson B.; Bressan, Rodrigo A.; Belangero, Sintia I.; Santoro, Marcos L.; Gadelha, Ary
    Lack of diversity regarding genetic and environmental backgrounds weakens the generalization and clinical applicability of research findings on psychotic disorders. Notably, Latin Americans have been generally neglected in genetic studies, comprising less than 2% of genome-wide association study samples. But Latin American populations represent a unique opportunity for research, given the exceptionally high ethnic admixture of this group. Increasing genetic diversity is essential to improve the fine mapping of known regions associated with psychotic disorders, discover novel genetic associations, and replicate studies. Additionally, Latin America is characterized by massive social, political, and economic inequalities, all known risk factors for mental health issues, including psychotic disorders. This article aims to 1) discuss the challenges and advantages of studying Latin America's particular genetic makeup and environmental context; 2) review previous studies conducted in the region; and 3) describe three Latin American research initiatives in progress: the Neuropsychiatric Genetics of Psychosis in Mexican Populations (NeuroMEX), the Paisa, and the Latin American Network for the Study of Early Psychosis (ANDES) studies.
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    Genome-wide association study identifies eight loci associated with blood pressure
    (2009) Newton-Cheh, Christopher; Johnson, Toby; Gateva, Vesela; Tobin, Martin D.; Bochud, Murielle; Coin, Lachlan; Najjar, Samer S.; Zhao, Jing Hua; Heath, Simon C.; Eyheramendy, Susana; Papadakis, Konstantinos; Voight, Benjamin F.; Scott, Laura J.; Zhang, Feng; Farrall, Martin; Tanaka, Toshiko; Wallace, Chris; Chambers, John C.; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Nilsson, Peter; van der Harst, Pim; Polidoro, Silvia; Grobbee, Diederick E.; Onland-Moret, N. Charlotte; Bots, Michiel L.; Wain, Louise V.; Elliott, Katherine S.; Teumer, Alexander; Luan, Jian'an; Lucas, Gavin; Kuusisto, Johanna; Burton, Paul R.; Hadley, David; McArdle, Wendy L.; Brown, Morris; Dominiczak, Anna; Newhouse, Stephen J.; Samani, Nilesh J.; Webster, John; Zeggini, Eleftheria; Beckmann, Jacques S.; Bergmann, Sven; Lim, Noha; Song, Kijoung; Vollenweider, Peter; Waeber, Gerard; Waterworth, Dawn M.; Yuan, Xin; Groop, Leif; Orho-Melander, Marju; Allione, Alessandra; Di Gregorio, Alessandra; Guarrera, Simonetta; Panico, Salvatore; Ricceri, Fulvio; Romanazzi, Valeria; Sacerdote, Carlotta; Vineis, Paolo; Barroso, Ines; Sandhu, Manjinder S.; Luben, Robert N.; Crawford, Gabriel J.; Jousilahti, Pekka; Perola, Markus; Boehnke, Michael; Bonnycastle, Lori L.; Collins, Francis S.; Jackson, Anne U.; Mohlke, Karen L.; Stringham, Heather M.; Valle, Timo T.; Willer, Cristen J.; Bergman, Richard N.; Morken, Mario A.; Doering, Angela; Gieger, Christian; Illig, Thomas; Meitinger, Thomas; Org, Elin; Pfeufer, Arne; Wichmann, H. Erich; Kathiresan, Sekar; Marrugat, Jaume; O'Donnell, Christopher J.; Schwartz, Stephen M.; Siscovick, David S.; Subirana, Isaac; Freimer, Nelson B.; Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa; McCarthy, Mark I.; O'Reilly, Paul F.; Peltonen, Leena; Pouta, Anneli; de Jong, Paul E.; Snieder, Harold; van Gilst, Wiek H.; Clarke, Robert; Goel, Anuj; Hamsten, Anders; Peden, John F.; Seedorf, Udo; Syvanen, Ann-Christine; Tognoni, Giovanni; Lakatta, Edward G.; Sanna, Serena; Scheet, Paul; Schlessinger, David; Scuteri, Angelo; Doerr, Marcus; Ernst, Florian; Felix, Stephan B.; Homuth, Georg; Lorbeer, Roberto; Reffelmann, Thorsten; Rettig, Rainer; Voelker, Uwe; Galan, Pilar; Gut, Ivo G.; Hercberg, Serge; Lathrop, G. Mark; Zelenika, Diana; Deloukas, Panos; Soranzo, Nicole; Williams, Frances M.; Zhai, Guangju; Salomaa, Veikko; Laakso, Markku; Elosua, Roberto; Forouhi, Nita G.; Volzke, Henry; Uiterwaal, Cuno S.; van der Schouw, Yvonne T.; Numans, Mattijs E.; Matullo, Giuseppe; Navis, Gerjan; Berglund, Goran; Bingham, Sheila A.; Kooner, Jaspal S.; Connell, John M.; Bandinelli, Stefania; Ferrucci, Luigi; Watkins, Hugh; Spector, Tim D.; Tuomilehto, Jaakko; Altshuler, David; Strachan, David P.; Laan, Maris; Meneton, Pierre; Wareham, Nicholas J.; Uda, Manuela; Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta; Mooser, Vincent; Melander, Olle; Loos, Ruth J. F.; Elliott, Paul; Abecasis, Goncalo R.; Caulfield, Mark; Munroe, Patricia B.
    Elevated blood pressure is a common, heritable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. To date, identification of common genetic variants influencing blood pressure has proven challenging. We tested 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs for association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 34,433 subjects of European ancestry from the Global BPgen consortium and followed up findings with direct genotyping (N <= 71,225 European ancestry, N <= 12,889 Indian Asian ancestry) and in silico comparison (CHARGE consortium, N 29,136). We identified association between systolic or diastolic blood pressure and common variants in eight regions near the CYP17A1 (P = 7 x 10(-24)), CYP1A2 (P = 1 x 10(-23)), FGF5 (P = 1 x 10(-21)), SH2B3 (P = 3 x 10(-18)), MTHFR (P = 2 x 10(-13)), c10orf107 (P = 1 x 10(-9)), ZNF652 (P = 5 x 10(-9)) and PLCD3 (P = 1 x 10(-8)) genes. All variants associated with continuous blood pressure were associated with dichotomous hypertension. These associations between common variants and blood pressure and hypertension offer mechanistic insights into the regulation of blood pressure and may point to novel targets for interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.