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Anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are complex disorders characterized by disordered eating behavior where the patient's attitude towards weight and shape, as well as their perception of body shape, are disturbed. Formal genetic studies on twins and families suggested a substantial genetic influence for AN and BN. Candidate gene studies have initially focused on the serotonergic and other central neurotransmitter systems and on genes involved in body weight regulation. Hardly any of the positive findings achieved in these studies were unequivocally confirmed or substantiated in meta-analyses. This might be due to too small sample sizes and thus low power and/or the genes underlying eating disorders have not yet been analyzed. However, some studies that also used subphenotypes (e.g., restricting type of AN) led to more specific results; however, confirmation is as yet mostly lacking. Systematic genome-wide linkage scans based on families with at least two individuals with an eating disorder (AN or BN) revealed initial linkage regions on chromosomes 1, 3 and 4 (AN) and 10p (BN). Analyses on candidate genes in the chromosome 1 linkage region led to the (as yet unconfirmed) identification of certain variants associated with AN. Genome-wide association studies are under way and will presumably help to identify genes and pathways involved in these eating disorders. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying eating disorders might improve therapeutic approaches.

The heritability of obesity and body weight in general is high. A small number of confirmed monogenic forms of obesity—the respective mutations are sufficient by themselves to cause the condition in food abundant societies—have been identified by molecular genetic studies. The elucidation of these genes, mostly based on animal and family studies, has led to the identification of important pathways to the disorder and thus to a deeper understanding of the regulation of body weight. The identification of inborn deficiency of the mostly adipocyte-derived satiety hormone leptin in extremely obese children from consanguineous families paved the way to the first pharmacological therapy for obesity based on a molecular genetic finding. The genetic predisposition to obesity for most individuals, however, has a polygenic basis. A polygenic variant by itself has a small effect on the phenotype; only in combination with other predisposing variants does a sizeable phenotypic effect arise. Common variants in the first intron of the 'fat mass and obesity associated' gene (FTO) result in an elevated body mass index (BMI) equivalent to approximately +0.4 kg/m² per risk allele. The FTO variants were originally detected in a genome wide association study (GWAS) pertaining to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Large meta-analyses of GWAS have subsequently identified additional polygenic variants. Up to December 2009, polygenic variants have been confirmed in a total of 17 independent genomic regions. Further study of genetic effects on human body weight regulation should detect variants that will explain a larger proportion of the heritability. The development of new strategies for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of obesity can be anticipated.

The current status of child and adolescent psychiatric genetics appears promising in light of the initiation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for diverse polygenic disorders and the molecular elucidation of monogenic Rett syndrome, for which recent functional studies provide hope for pharmacological treatment strategies. Within the last 50 years, tremendous progress has been made in linking genetic variation to behavioral phenotypes and psychiatric disorders. We summarize the major findings of the Human Genome Project and dwell on largely unsuccessful candidate gene and linkage studies. GWAS for the first time offer the possibility to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants without a priori hypotheses as to their molecular etiology. At the same time it is becoming increasingly clear that very large sample sizes are required in order to enable genome wide significant findings, thus necessitating further large-scaled ascertainment schemes for the successful elucidation of the molecular genetics of childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders. We conclude by reflecting on different scenarios for future research into the molecular basis of early onset psychiatric disorders. This review represents the introductory article of this special issue of the European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

16 páginas, 2 tablas, 6 figuras. ; Helminth infections are ubiquitous in grazing ruminant production systems, and are responsible for significant costs and production losses. Anthelmintic Resistance (AR) in parasites is now widespread throughout Europe, although there are still gaps in our knowledge in some regions and countries. AR is a major threat to the sustainability of modern ruminant livestock production, resulting in reduced productivity, compromised animal health and welfare, and increased greenhouse gas emissions through increased parasitism and farm inputs. A better understanding of the extent of AR in Europe is needed to develop and advocate more sustainable parasite control approaches. A database of European published and unpublished AR research on gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) and liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) was collated by members of the European COST Action "COMBAR" (Combatting Anthelmintic Resistance in Ruminants), and combined with data from a previous systematic review of AR in GIN. A total of 197 publications on AR in GIN were available for analysis, representing 535 studies in 22 countries and spanning the period 1980–2020. Reports of AR were present throughout the European continent and some reports indicated high within-country prevalence. Heuristic sample size-weighted estimates of European AR prevalence over the whole study period, stratified by anthelmintic class, varied between 0 and 48%. Estimated regional (country) prevalence was highly heterogeneous, ranging between 0% and 100% depending on livestock sector and anthelmintic class, and generally increased with increasing research effort in a country. In the few countries with adequate longitudinal data, there was a tendency towards increasing AR over time for all anthelmintic classes in GIN: aggregated results in sheep and goats since 2010 reveal an average prevalence of resistance to benzimidazoles (BZ) of 86%, macrocyclic lactones except moxidectin (ML) 52%, levamisole (LEV) 48%, and moxidectin (MOX) 21%. All major GIN genera survived treatment in various studies. In cattle, prevalence of AR varied between anthelmintic classes from 0–100% (BZ and ML), 0–17% (LEV) and 0–73% (MOX), and both Cooperia and Ostertagia survived treatment. Suspected AR in F. hepatica was reported in 21 studies spanning 6 countries. For GIN and particularly F. hepatica, there was a bias towards preferential sampling of individual farms with suspected AR, and research effort was biased towards Western Europe and particularly the United Kingdom. Ongoing capture of future results in the live database, efforts to avoid bias in farm recruitment, more accurate tests for AR, and stronger appreciation of the importance of AR among the agricultural industry and policy makers, will support more sophisticated analyses of factors contributing to AR and effective strategies to slow its spread. ; This review is based upon work from COST Action COMBAR CA16230, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and from the Livestock Helminth Research Alliance (LiHRA). HRV and ERM are supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through BBSRC grant BB/ M003949/1; HRV is also supported by the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health, and ERM by UKRI BBSRC project BB/R010250/1 and the UK Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, Veterinary Medicines Directorate grant VM0543. DJB is supported by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) division. MMV was funded by the Spanish "Ramón y Cajal" Programme of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MMV, RYC2015-18368). MK and JV were supported by the Czech Republic Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports INTER-COST project (LTC19018). The authors would like to thank all COMBAR consortium members who contributed to the development of the database but who did not meet the ICMJE criteria for co-authorship. Thanks are also due to Carine Paraud (ANSES Niort) and Philippe Jacquiet (National Veterinary School, Toulouse) for providing unpublished data from sheep and goat surveys for France and to Vasile Cozma (University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania) for providing data from surveys for Romania.

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (ISF, IB) (098497/Z/12/Z; WT098051), Medical Research Council (ISF, SOR) (MRC_MC_UU_12012/5), NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (ISF, IB, SOR), Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Endowment (ISF), European Research Council (ISF) and NIH grant DK064265 (GLM), the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) project Beta-JUDO n°279153 (ISF, AK). This study comprises one arm of the UK10K Consortium (WT091310). The UK Household Longitudinal Study is led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The survey was conducted by NatCen and the genome-wide scan data were analysed and deposited by the Wellcome Trust www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Scientific Reports | 7: 4394 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-03054-8 1 1 Sanger Institute. Information on how to access the data can be found on the Understanding Society website https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/. AH and JH were funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (National Genome Research Net-Plus 01GS0820), the German Research Foundation (DFG; HI865/2-1), the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements n°245009 and n°262055. We thank participants and staff of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, Copenhagen Ischemic Heart Disease Study, and the Copenhagen General Population Study for their important contributions (CCHS, CGPS, CIHDS). CHD case ascertainment and validation, genotyping, and clinical chemistry assays in EPICCVD were supported by grants awarded to the University of Cambridge from the EU Framework Programme 7 (HEALTH-F2-2012-279233), the UK Medical Research Council (G0800270) and British Heart Foundation (SP/09/002), the European Research Council (268834), the UK National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Merck and Pfizer. We thank all EPIC participants and staff for their contribution to the study, the laboratory teams at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit for sample management and Cambridge Genomic Services for genotyping, Sarah Spackman for data management, and the team at the EPICCVD Coordinating Centre for study coordination and administration (EPIC-CVD). JD is supported by a British Heart Foundation Professorship, NIHR Senior Investigator, European Research Council Senior Investigator. Leipzig LIFE Child as part of the Leipzig Childhood Obesity cohort was funded by the European Union, by the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) by means of the Free State of Saxony within the framework of the excellence initiative

Obesity is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Using targeted and whole-exome sequencing, we studied 32 human and 87 rodent obesity genes in 2,548 severely obese children and 1,117 controls. We identified 52 variants contributing to obesity in 2% of cases including multiple novel variants in GNAS, which were sometimes found with accelerated growth rather than short stature as described previously. Nominally significant associations were found for rare functional variants in BBS1, BBS9, GNAS, MKKS, CLOCK and ANGPTL6. The p.S284X variant in ANGPTL6 drives the association signal (rs201622589, MAF~0.1%, odds ratio = 10.13, p-value = 0.042) and results in complete loss of secretion in cells. Further analysis including additional case-control studies and population controls (N = 260,642) did not support association of this variant with obesity (odds ratio = 2.34, p-value = 2.59 × 10(-3)), highlighting the challenges of testing rare variant associations and the need for very large sample sizes. Further validation in cohorts with severe obesity and engineering the variants in model organisms will be needed to explore whether human variants in ANGPTL6 and other genes that lead to obesity when deleted in mice, do contribute to obesity. Such studies may yield druggable targets for weight loss therapies. ; This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (ISF, IB) (098497/Z/12/Z; WT098051), Medical Research Council (ISF, SOR) (MRC_MC_UU_12012/5), NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (ISF, IB, SOR), Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Endowment (ISF), European Research Council (ISF) and NIH grant DK064265 (GLM), the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) project Beta-JUDO n°279153 (ISF, AK). This study comprises one arm of the UK10K Consortium (WT091310). The UK Household Longitudinal Study is led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. AH and JH were funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (National Genome Research Net-Plus 01GS0820), the German Research Foundation (DFG; HI865/2-1), the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements n°245009 and n°262055. CHD case ascertainment and validation, genotyping, and clinical chemistry assays in EPICCVD were supported by grants awarded to the University of Cambridge from the EU Framework Programme 7 (HEALTH-F2-2012-279233), the UK Medical Research Council (G0800270) and British Heart Foundation (SP/09/002), the European Research Council (268834), the UK National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Merck and Pfizer. JD is supported by a British Heart Foundation Professorship, NIHR Senior Investigator, European Research Council Senior Investigator. Leipzig LIFE Child as part of the Leipzig Childhood Obesity cohort was funded by the European Union, by the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) by means of the Free State of Saxony within the framework of the excellence initiative.