Frontiers in Health Sciences -seminaari

Frontiers in Health Sciences on Itä-Suomen yliopiston terveystieteiden tiedekunnan järjestämä seminaarisarja, joka on suunnattu sekä tutkijoille, opettajille että opiskelijoille. Seminaarin järjestämisestä vastaavat vuorotelleen tiedekunnan eri tohtoriohjelmat. 

Frontiers in Health Sciences -seminaarisarja jatkuu apulaisprofessori Evandro Fei Fangin (University of Oslo and Akershus University Hospital, Norja) luennolla.

Seminaarin aihe on The ‘4As’: Ageing, Alzheimer, Autophagy, and Artificial Intelligence ja se pidetään englanniksi.

Tilaisuus on avoin kaikille kiinnostuneille. Tervetuloa!

Abstrakti:
Increased lifespan enables people to live longer, but not necessarily healthier lives. Ageing is arguably the highest risk factor for numerous human diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD); thus understanding the molecular mechanisms of human aging holds the promise of developing interventional and therapeutic strategies for many diseases simultaneously, promoting healthy longevity. Accumulation of damaged mitochondria is a hallmark of aging and age-related AD. However, the molecular mechanisms of impaired mitochondrial homeostasis and their relationship to AD are still elusive. Mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy) is the cellular self-clearing process that removes damaged and superfluous mitochondria, and therefore plays a fundamental role in maintaining neuronal homeostasis and survival. We hypothesise that age-susceptible defective mitophagy causes accumulation of damaged mitochondria, which in combination with the two AD-defining pathologies, Aβ plaques and tau tangles, further exacerbates AD onset and progression. Restoration of mitophagy, through pharmaceutical (e.g., NAD+, passion fruit components, and urolithin A) and genetic approaches, forestalls pathology and cognitive decline in mouse models of AD and improves neuronal function in AD iPSC-derived neurons. Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to propel drug screening, as well as being used for drug design specifically targeting AD and ageing pathways. The Evandro Fang lab is now involved in several clinical trials looking into the use of NAD+ precursors to treat AD and premature ageing diseases, among others.

Lisätietoja antaa Molekulaarisen lääketieteen tohtoriohjelman (Doctoral Programme in Molecular Medicine - DPMM) koordinaattori Tiia Turunen, dpmm@uef.fi.