Directed by the ICREA researcher Marco Milan, the "Research Group on Developmental Biology of Drosophila", part of the Biomedical Institute of the PCB (IRBB-PCB), will join an integrated project financed by the European Commission. This project will study new strategies to combat neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, the project aims to increase our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the appearance of these diseases, improve diagnostic methods and develop treatments and strategies for prevention. The project will receive an initial global budget of 9 million € from the VI Framework Programme.

”

With the acronym of the God of Chaos in Egyptian mythology, APOPIS, the project, entitled “Abnomal proteins in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders”, will focus on Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and other prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jacob (CJD) or mad cow disease. In these diseases the nervous system is affected by a degeneration and subsequent death of nerve cells and often leads to the death of the patient when he/she is in an advanced stage.

At present, there is no treatment available to stop or prevent these diseases. In part, this lack of strategies is due to the little data on the mechanisms responsible for their development.

The studies performed to date indicate that neurodegenerative diseases are caused by the accumulation of protein aggregates in the brain; these will be the object of the APOPIS study. The researchers will analyse the effects of these aggregates and will identify the cellular components that trigger and block their development. These cellular factors could be used as a basis for the search of new drugs that can block the formation of the protein aggregates, thereby contributing to halting or at least slowing down the development of the disease.

View full information