Karen F Vieira

University of Florida | UF

Current antidepressants used to treat pediatric patients have the disadvantage of limited efficacy and potentially serious side effects. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of vitamin C as an adjuvant agent in the treatment of pediatric major depressive disorder in a six-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial. The stud...

Over the past 20 years, researchers have made considerable progress in the search for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. Advocates of this research contend that identifying biomarkers will aid in the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, as well as...

Over the past several decades, complementary and alternative medications have increasingly become a part of everyday treatment. With the rising cost of prescription medications and their production of unwanted side effects, patients are exploring herbal and other natural remedies for the management and treatment of psychological conditions. Psychol...

For more than 20 years, researchers have attempted to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, major (unipolar) depression, and bipolar disorder. Advocates of this research contend that identifying such biomarkers will aid in the diagnosis of these disorders, as well as the possible developmen...

Schizophrenia, a severe brain disorder that involves hallucinations, disordered thinking and deficiencies in cognition, has been studied for decades in order to determine the early events that lead to this neurological disorder. In this review, we interpret the developmental and genetic models that have been proposed and treatment options associate...

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 out of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders. Major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are among the most common mental disorders that currently plague numerous countr...

The human β-globin genes are expressed in a developmental stage-specific manner in erythroid cells. Gene-proximal cis-regulatory DNA elements and interacting proteins restrict the expression of the genes to the embryonic, fetal, or adult stage of erythropoiesis. In addition, the relative order of the genes with respect to the locus control region c...

Eukaryotic chromosomal DNA is densely packaged in the nucleus and organized into discrete domains of active and inactive chromatin. Gene loci that are activated during the process of cell differentiation undergo changes that result in modifications of specific histone tail residues and in loosening of chromatin structure. The beta-globin genes are...

Erythroid-specific, high level expression of the β-globin genes is regulated by the locus control region (LCR), composed of multiple DNase I-hypersensitive sites and located far upstream of the genes. Recent studies have shown that LCR core elements recruit RNA polymerase II (pol II). In the present study we demonstrate the following: 1) pol II and...

The human β‐globin gene is abundantly expressed specifically in adult erythroid cells. Stage‐specific transcription is regulated principally by promoter proximal cis‐regulatory elements. The basal promoter contains a non‐canonical TATA‐like motif as well as an initiator element. These two elements have been shown to interact with the TFII‐D complex...

A variety of methods are available to analyze protein–DNA interactions in vivo. Two of the most prominent of these methods are chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and in vivo footprinting. Both of these procedures have specific limitations. For example, the ChIP assay fails to document where exactly a protein binds in vivo. The precipitation of a...