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| Author(s): |
Sheila Barreto Guterres
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Carlos. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC/BT) |
| Defense date: | 2011-08-30 |
| Examining board members: |
Emanuel Carrilho;
Gilberto Barbosa Domont;
Mario Sergio Palma
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| Advisor: | Emanuel Carrilho |
| Abstract | |
Schizophrenia is a disabling, serious, and chronic illness, which affects about 24 million people worldwide. It is characterized by a severe disorganization of the thoughts that harms the social life of patients becoming them dependent of the family and/or government. There are effective treatments that contribute to decrease the prevalence of the disorder because they improve the life and social conditions of the patients, but they are only advantageous if the intervention is made in the early stages of the disease. It is difficult to obtain early diagnosis due to the complexity of the disease and its insidious symptoms before the beginning of the psychosis. The brain is not easily accessed in vivo and, because of this, it is very important to study the peripheral tissues like blood, which makes the use of the platelets very interesting. Furthermore, platelets and serotonergic neurons share biochemical and morphological characteristics that allows the comparison between structure and function of both. From these similarities many authors has used platelets as a neuron model to study many neurodegenerative diseases including schizophrenia. The early detection of schizophrenia is a current and suitable goal, not only to improve the early diagnosis but also to develop new treatments, differentiate the subtypes, and monitor the preventive interventions. The purpose of this project is to do a comparative screening of expressed proteins in platelets from schizophrenics and controls with the objective of finding differently expressed proteins that could be candidates to biomarkers using 2D-DIGE and mass spectrometry. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 05/02379-0 - Qualitative and quantitative determination of phospholipase A2 in blood platelets of patients with neuropshychiatric disorders |
| Grantee: | Sheila Barreto Guterres |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |