Ann Manzardo

Research

Overview

My early clinical and pre-clinical research focused on psychosocial and neurobiological risk factors for alcohol and substance use disorders emphasizing the role of early childhood development and co-morbid psychiatric illnesses. My research utilized data from the Danish longitudinal Study on Alcoholism, a 50-yr old Danish birth cohort, and Danish National Registries to characterize psychosocial and neurodevelopmental factors predictive of alcoholism. These studies identified gender-selective developmental markers related to premature birth that predicted later alcoholism in males and may reflect predisposing disruption of brain neurocircuitry.

These research activities and discoveries led me to examine the role of nutritional factors in alcoholism pathology and their impact on drinking behaviors and recovery in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of benfotiamine, a highly efficacious thiamine analogue, in alcoholism. This study found reduced alcohol consumption in females treated with benfotiamine and reduced psychiatric symptomatology in males with severe alcoholism supporting the possible utility of benfotiamine supplementation as an adjuvant therapy for alcoholism rehabilitation particularly in the outpatient setting. Further genomic characterization of this sample led to additional findings of immunological and other factors influencing behavioral outcomes in alcoholism.

My continued professional development and collaborative relationships at the University of Kansas Medical Center lead to the exploration of genetic mechanisms associated with alcoholism pathology and other common and rare genetic disorders using advanced genetic platforms and bioinformatics methods. These techniques were applied to the examination of DNA methylation, structural, functional miRNA and exon level disturbances, gene and transcriptome sequencing in alcoholism, Prader-Willi syndrome, Alstrom syndrome, autism and other disorders.

My long-standing research collaboration with Merlin G. Butler has advanced understanding of the clinical and molecular characteristics of Prader-Willi syndrome and course over the lifespan through detailed clinical and genomic investigation with genotype-phenotype association studies.

• Administration of oleoylethanolamide for hyperphagia in Prader-Willi syndrome, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research , Co-I

• Manzardo, A., M, He, J, Poje, A, Penick, E., C, Campbell, J, Butler, M., G. 2013. Double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of benfotiamine for severe alcohol dependence.. Drug and alcohol dependence, 133 (2), 562-70
• Manzardo, A., M, Pendleton, T, Poje, A, Penick, E., C, Butler, M., G. 2015. Change in psychiatric symptomatology after benfotiamine treatment in males is related to lifetime alcoholism severity.. Drug and alcohol dependence, 152, 257-63
• Manzardo, A., M, Poje, A., B, Penick, E., C, Butler, M., G. 2016. Multiplex Immunoassay of Plasma Cytokine Levels in Men with Alcoholism and the Relationship to Psychiatric Assessments.. International journal of molecular sciences, 17 (4), 472
• Manzardo, A., M, Loker, J, Heinemann, J, Loker, C, Butler, M., G. 2018. Survival trends from the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) 40-year mortality survey.. Genet Med, 20 (1), 24-30
• Manzardo, A., M, Ely, B, Davila, M., C. 2019. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using different TMS instruments for major depressive disorder at a suburban tertiary clinic. Ment Illn, 11 (1), 7947
• Manzardo, A., M, Heinemann, J, McManus, B, Butler, M., G. 2019. Venous thromboembolism in Prader-Willi syndrome: a questionnaire survey. Genes