Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Several genetic loci in chromosomes 11 and 15 have recently been associated with non-syndromic autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in populations from North America and Europe. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether such an association exists in a Latvian population. Ninety-five patients with ASD in the age range 3–20 years (mean age 8 years, SD 3.18) participated in the study. The control group consisted of 161 healthy, non-related individuals without ASD randomly selected from the Latvian Genome Database. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — rs11212733, SNP rs1394119, rs2421826, rs1454985 — were genotyped by the TaqMan method. Allele frequency differences between ASD patients and control subjects were compared for each SNP using a standard chi-square test with Bonferroni correction. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05 for nominal association. Only the genetic marker rs11212733, localised on the long arm of chromosome 11 in locus 22.3, was found to be strongly associated with the ASD patient group (χ2 6.982, Padjusted 0.033, odds ratio 1.625). Our data demonstrating a significant relationship between the SNP rs11212733 and the development of ASD in a Latvian population suggest that it is not a population-specific relationship. Thus, future studies focusing on the DDX10 gene and related genetic loci are needed.

Abstract
Hospitalisation course and outcome for patients with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing Enterobacteriaceae infection is less favourable due to extensive antibacterial resistance. This study was conducted to identify possible risk factors that could influence the hospitalisation course and outcome in these patients. The study protocol included demographic, clinical, hospitalisation, bacteriological and plasmid genetic data. The preliminary study results showed that hospitalisation course and outcome was less favourable for internal medicine profile patients with ESBL producing bacteria, TEM gene presence in the bacterial plasmid genome, patient age < 65 years and patients with infectious and musculoskeletal diseases. The study includes preliminary data only and further studies should be carried out to verify the suggested risk factors.

Abstract
This article presents a review on population genetics of Latvians, which alongside Lithuanians are the two extant Baltic speaking populations. The article provides a description of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data and contains a comparative analysis of the results of studies performed on classical autosomal genetic markers, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining part of the Y chromosome (NRY), with data on neighbouring populations. The study also covers data of recently performed ancient DNA (aDNA) studies carried out on samples from the territory of today's Latvia. The results of population genetic studies have shown a mixture of eastern and western genetic traits in present-day Latvians with only small differences between Latvian subpopulations. Studies of the Baltic "tribal gene" LW
b
, as well as the gene's SERPINA1 allele PIZ have indicated the presence of a considerable Baltic admixture in the neighbouring Finno-Ugric and Slavic populations. Although mtDNA analyses have shown that Latvians genetically in general belong to the same common gene pool as most of the Europeans, the Y-chromosomal lineage composition suggests that they are most similar to Northern and Eastern European populations of Lithuanians, Estonians, and Eastern-Slavic populations, which are ethnogenetically closest to them. The analysis of aDNA from the Early and Middle Neolithic did not present any genomic evidence of gene-flow from Central European farmers or any mitochondrial or Y-chromosomal haplogroups that are typical for them in the hunter-gatherers from the territory of today's Latvia and Lithuania.