[Vigilance level for cardiovascular risk factors in schizophrenic patients]. / Niveau de vigilance des psychiatres pour les facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire chez les patients schizophrènes.

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenic patients have increased cardiovascular risk factors and morbi-mortality as compared with the general population. OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of French psychiatrists vigilance regarding cardiovascular risk factors in schizophrenic patients. METHODS: Prospective, transverse, multicentric observational study implemented in France in 2007 and conducted by psychiatrists with a liberal activity. The included patients had to meet the following selection criteria: patients ≥ 18 years old, fulfilling the DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia, treated or not treated for their schizophrenia, with an ambulatory follow-up, without schizophreniform, schizoaffective, or other psychotic disorder. The psychiatrists "vigilance level" for a given cardiovascular risk factor was defined as a systematic investigation of this cardiovascular risk factor for at least 75% of the schizophrenic patients included in the study by the psychiatrist. RESULTS: A total of 382 psychiatrists included 2242 patients, the data collected for 2222 patients were finally analysed. The mean age was 41 years old, 59% were men. The mean BMI was 27 kg/m(2), 34% of the patients were overweight, 23% were obese. The paranoid and residual schizophrenia were the most frequently described subtypes of the disease (41.3 and 25.0% respectively), 58% of the patients were moderately or markedly ill according to the CGI-S scale. Most of the patients were treated with atypical antipsychotics (77%). Only 58% of the psychiatrists were vigilant for the weight of their patients, 38% for the arterial tension, 25% for the family history of premature coronary disease, 14% for the glycemia, 12% for the triglycerides, 10% for HDL cholesterol, 6% for the waist measurement; 35% of the psychiatrists were vigilant for no cardiovascular risk factor. Less than 30% of the psychiatrists recommended their patients to other specialists to manage cardiovascular disorders. CONCLUSION: Similarly to other countries, French psychiatrists provide insufficient care of cardiovascular risk factors of schizophrenic patients in their current clinical practice.

Quadruplex-based molecular beacons as tunable DNA probes.

Molecular beacons (MBs) are fluorescent nucleic acid probes with a hairpin-shaped structure in which the 5' and 3' ends are self-complementary. Due to a change in their emissive properties upon recognition with complementary sequences, MBs allow the diagnosis of single-stranded DNA or RNA with high mismatch discrimination, in vitro and in vivo. Whereas the stems of MB hairpins usually rely on the formation of a Watson-Crick duplex, we demonstrate in this report that the preceding structure can be replaced by a G-quadruplex motif (G4). Intramolecular quadruplexes may still be formed with a central loop composed of 12 to 21 bases, therefore extending the sequence repertoire of quadruplex formation. G4-MB can efficiently be used for oligonucleotide discrimination: in the presence of a complementary sequence, the central loop hybridizes and forms a duplex that causes opening of the quadruplex stem. The corresponding G4-MB unfolding can be detected by a change in its fluorescence emission. We discuss the thermodynamic and kinetic opportunities that are provided by using G4-MB instead of traditional MB. In particular, the intrinsic feature of the quadruplex motif facilitates the design of functional molecular beacons by independently varying the concentration of monovalent or divalent cations in the medium.