Enciu Ana Maria
National Institute of Research-Development in the Pathology Domain and Biomedical Sciences Victor Babes
Romania
Before Alzheimers Disease: novel mechanism of amyloid precursor protein signaling in adult healthy brain
The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)
116,939
10/01/2015
2
Any pathological process (except for infections) is a vicious turn of a normally
occurring event. When or why this turn occurs in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains a
significant scientific problem. Most of the research efforts focus on the outcome of this turn –
neurotoxic extracellular amyloid plaques in the brain. The role of the amyloid protein (APP)
forming these plates is still unclear, although its involvement in neuritogenesis and neuronal
migration has been studied, both adult and embryonic stages. Studies are usually performed in
aged brain, transgenic or knockout animal models and focus on protein fragments generated from
various enzymatic processes, rather than on the full protein.
This project proposes a change of perspective from aging brain towards the healthy adult brain,
hypothesizing that full APP possesses matrix-related signaling abilities, not limited to nervous
tissue. As cellular mechanism, we propose an oligomerization model, dependent on membrane
microdomains, which creates the prerequisites for signaling and proper protein metabolism.
Not only the project will use advanced techniques (mass spectroscopy, FRET spectrophotometry,
non-denaturing electrophoresis native), but aims to customize the protocols for the proposed
hypotheses.
http://www.ivb.ro/v2/index.php/en/2012-11-30-13-03-3/34-default/387-hr