New symposium accepted for the Program of the 21st ISBS Conference - TopicsExpress



          

New symposium accepted for the Program of the 21st ISBS Conference in St. Petersburg (May 16-20, 2014) Title: Immune and infectious factors in psychiatric disease Chair: Mikhail Pletnikov (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA) Speakers: 1. Dr Faith Dickerson (Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Baltimore, USA) 2. Dr. Robert Yolken (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA) 3. Dr. Håkan Karlsson (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) 4. Dr Mikhail Pletnikov (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA) The symposium will include four speakers who will present their recent studies of the role of infectious and immune factors in psychiatric disorders. Dr. Faith Dickerson will present data on multiple antibodies to infectious agents and food antigens as well as protein markers of inflammation in well-characterized cohorts of individuals with established schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and non-psychiatric controls. Dr. Robert Yolken will present data on the role of infectious agents and the microbiome in the target psychiatric disorders. He will describe the use of both conventional immunoassays and the technique of high throughput sequencing to identify pathogenic agents and to characterize microbial populations at mucosal surface. Dr. Karlsson will describe recent studies of levels of acute phase proteins across maternal exposures to chronic infections (Toxoplasma gondii and cytomegalovirus, HSV-1 and HSV-2) or maternal immune reactivity to gluten and casein using neonatal blood samples from control subjects and those with non-affective psychosis. The data indicate that two common chronic infectious agents, Toxoplasma gondii and cytomegalovirus, may affect neonatal levels of proteins involved in innate immunity and inflammation. Dr. Pletnikov will present data generated in animal models on relative contributions of direct and indirect (immune) mechanisms whereby infectious agents affects early brain development to result in behavioral and cognitive alterations consistent with aspects of major psychiatric disorders in humans. The symposium will provide an exciting overview of the recent developments in translational and basic research in infectious and immune mechanisms of psychiatric disorders.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 03:05:00 +0000

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