Project description:Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a major role in the pathogenesis of sporadic Parkinson’s disease (PD) and familial PD caused by mutations in the PARK2 gene. The protein, parkin, is vital for mitochondrial function, but the lack of key PD phenotypes in PARK2 knockout (KO) rodent models has hindered investigations into parkin’s role in PD pathogenesis. Human isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines with and without PARK2 KO enable studies of the effect of parkin dysfunction in dopaminergic neuronal cultures.
Project description:Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a major role in the pathogenesis of sporadic Parkinson’s disease (PD) and familial PD caused by mutations in the PARK2 gene. The protein, parkin, is vital for mitochondrial function, but the lack of key PD phenotypes in PARK2 knockout (KO) rodent models has hindered investigations into parkin’s role in PD pathogenesis. Human isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines with and without PARK2 KO enable studies of the effect of parkin dysfunction in dopaminergic neuronal cultures.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from sporadic Parkinson's disease patients and healthy control subjects were used for disease modeling. iPSC were differentiated towards midbrain dopaminergic neurons. For metabolic analysis, midbrain neuronal precursor cells were cultivated in growth medium supplemented with either 1.25 mM [U-13C]-glutamine or 21.25 mM [U-13C]-glucose. Metabolites were extracted and analyzed using GC-MS. The MetaboliteDetector software was used to analyze chromatograms, calculate mass isotopomer distributions (MIDs) and perform relative comparison of metabolite levels.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from a sporadic Alzheimer disease donor as a model for investigating disease mechanisms
Project description:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease mainly affecting upper and lower motoneurons (MNs). In the last decades, several genes have been associated to the familial form of this disorder (fALS), thus depicting an extremely complex pathogenic landscape. The aim of this study was to identify convergent molecular underpinnings shared by ALS cases characterized by mutations in different genes using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).
Project description:Evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) act as mediators and biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. Two distinct forms of Alzheimer Disease (AD) are known: a late-onset sporadic form (SAD) and an early-onset familial form (FAD). This project aims to characterize and compare the protein profile of systemic EVs from postmortem SAD and FAD patients and compared them to postmortem controls. We used LC-MS/MS label-free analysis.
Project description:Non-familial Alzheimer’s disease (AD) occurring before 65 years of age is commonly referred to as early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) and constitutes ~5-6% of all Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cases. While EOAD exhibits the same clinicopathological changes such as amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), brain atrophy, and cognitive decline as observed in the more prevalent late-onset AD (LOAD), EOAD patients tend to have more severe cognitive deficits, including visuospatial, language, and motor dysfunction. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been used to model and study penetrative, familial AD (FAD) mutations in APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2, but have been seldom used for sporadic forms of AD that display more heterogeneous disease manifestation. In this study, we sought to characterize iPSC-derived neurons from EOAD patients via RNA-sequencing. A modest difference in expression profiles between EOAD patients and non-demented control subjects resulted in a limited number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Based on this analysis, we provide evidence that iPSC-derived neuron model systems, likely due to the loss of EOAD-associated epigenetic signatures during the iPSC reprogramming, are not an ideal model system to study sporadic AD.
