PRIN 2017 2017LYTE9M_006 - Belloli Sara (DSB.AD008.535)

Thematic area

Biomedical sciences

Project area

Structure responsible for the research project

Institute of molecular bioimaging and physiology (IBSBC)

Project manager

SARA BELLOLI
Phone number: 02-26433640
Email: sara.belloli@ibfm.cnr.it

Abstract

Dopaminergic nigrostriatal terminal loss is a slow progressive process in Parkinson's Disease (PD) and flows into the onset of motor symptoms only after reaching a critical threshold ranging from 70 to 80 %.For this reason, PD therapy can exclusively resolve symptoms. The poor knowledge of the mechanisms underlying striatal dopamine denervation and the lack of specific markers allowing to define a reliable PD risk prediction, hinder proper prodromal PD diagnosis and development of disease-modifying therapies. Integrated preclinical approach will be used to match the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying dopaminergic deafferentation with the development of earlier disease markers and targeted treatments. The general objective of the proposal is, therefore, to identify early pre-degenerative/premotor molecular alterations that initiate and/or contribute to loss of striatal synapses and axonal shrinkage in mice modeling different features of disease synaptopathy. To this end, the present proposal will use a multi-faceted approach in different mouse carrying PD-like pathology to study the progression of structural synaptic and axonal modifications, along with the underlying mole

Goals

The project aims to identify early markers of Parkinson's disease (PD) using specific models of disease and Molecular imaging techniques as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance (MR).
To this aim, the images acquisition and analysis will be set on the MPTP mouse model and subsequently applied to two different transgenic mouse models, the SYN120 model and the crel-/- model. Structural an biochemical changes will be monitored longitudinally in these two models to identify the prodromal markers of disease.

Start date of activity

29/08/2019

Keywords

neuroscience, neuropharmacology, neurochemistry

Last update: 25/08/2025