Laboratory of Genetics, Department of Biotechnology, School of Applied Biology and Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
University Research Institute of Maternal and Child Health & Precision Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, "Aghia Sophia" Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2023;1423:79-99. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-31978-5_7.
Mental disorders are strongly connected with several psychiatric conditions including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorder, and suicides. There are many biological conditions and pathways that define these complicated illnesses. For example, eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that require the intervention of geneticists, psychiatrists, and medical experts in order to alleviate their symptoms. A patient with suicidal ideation should first be identified and consequently monitored by a similar team of specialists. Both genetics and epigenetics can shed light on eating disorders and suicides as they are found in the main core of such investigations. In the present study, an analysis has been performed on two specific members of the GPCR family toward drawing conclusions regarding their functionality and implementation in mental disorders. Specifically, evolutionary and structural studies on the adrenoceptor alpha 2b (ADRA2B) and the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1A (HTR1A) have been carried out. Both receptors are classified in the biogenic amine receptors sub-cluster of the GPCRs and have been connected in many studies with mental diseases and malnutrition conditions. The major goal of this study is the investigation of conserved motifs among biogenic amine receptors that play an important role in this family signaling pathway, through an updated evolutionary analysis and the correlation of this information with the structural features of the HTR1A and ADRA2B. Furthermore, the structural comparison of ADRA2B, HTR1A, and other members of GPCRs related to mental disorders is performed.
精神障碍与多种精神疾病密切相关，包括抑郁症、双相情感障碍、精神分裂症、饮食失调和自杀。有许多生物学条件和途径可以定义这些复杂的疾病。例如，饮食失调是一种复杂的心理健康状况，需要遗传学家、精神科医生和医学专家的干预，以减轻其症状。有自杀意念的患者首先应由类似的专家团队识别和监测。遗传学和表观遗传学都可以揭示饮食失调和自杀的原因，因为它们存在于这些研究的核心。在本研究中，对 GPCR 家族的两个特定成员进行了分析，以得出关于它们在精神障碍中的功能和实施的结论。具体来说，对肾上腺素能受体 alpha 2b (ADRA2B)和 5-羟色胺受体 1A (HTR1A)进行了进化和结构研究。这两种受体都被归类为 GPCR 中的生物胺受体亚群，并且在许多研究中与精神疾病和营养不良状况有关。本研究的主要目标是通过更新的进化分析，研究生物胺受体之间的保守基序，这些基序在该家族信号通路中起着重要作用，并将这些信息与 HTR1A 和 ADRA2B 的结构特征相关联。此外，还对 ADRA2B、HTR1A 和与精神障碍相关的其他 GPCR 成员进行了结构比较。
