Our team member, Dr. Martina Laczó, shared her knowledge and expertise at Alzheimer Cafe, an informal meeting place for caregivers, their loved ones with dementia, and professionals to share their concerns, experiences, and the joys of caring.
Dr. Laczó discussed what to do when memory problems arise, what the symptoms of dementia are, and whether there is a reliable “Alzheimer’s test”. She answered questions like: Which symptoms may indicate the disease that causes dementia syndrome? Where can I seek professional help in case of memory problems? How a comprehensive diagnosis of cognitive impairment is made. Whether it is possible to go for testing of memory and other cognitive functions as part of prevention.
Our neuropsychological team members presented the recent findings in neuropsychological research at the 39th Psychological days in Olomouc (14-16 September 2022). The neuropsychological team leader, Dr. Hana Horakova, presented her research on subjective cognitive decline „Když pacient ví, zatímco lékař ještě ne: Role subjektivních kognitivních stížností v identifikaci jedinců v riziku Alzheimerovy nemoci“ (video 1). Assoc. Prof. Tomas Nikolai talked about the need of new Uniform Data Set for diagnosis of neurocognitive impairment „Základní neuropsychologické baterie pro vyšetření neurokognitivních poruch: Tvorba a česká lokalizace“; and Veronika Matuskova, M.A. presented the concept of mild behavior impairment „Není to jen o kognici: Neuropsychiatrické příznaky v časných stádiích Alzheimerovy nemoci“ (video 2).
Dr. Horakova presented her research on the subjective cognitive decline
Mgr. Matuskova presented her research on mild behavior impairment
Assoc. Prof. Martin Vyhnalek presented the new concepts of ageing, including new information about mitophagy, during the invited lecture Cognition changes in old age: how to know we are ageing normally and how to age successfully at the 19th Seminar of practical neurology in Brno. This prestigious event for neurologists was attended by more than 250 neurologists from the Czech republic.
In November our MitAD team published a review article on Compromised autophagy and mitophagy in brain ageing and Alzheimer’s diseases in Aging Brain (an Open Access journal that complements Neurobiology of Aging).
In this review, we give an overview of autophagy and mitophagy and their link to the progression of AD. We also summarize approaches to upregulate autophagy/mitophagy. We hypothesize that age-dependent compromised autophagy/mitophagy is a cause of brain ageing and a risk factor for AD, while restoration of autophagy/mitophagy to more youthful levels could return the brain to health.
On the 13th of October, a satellite symposium of the Mit-AD project focused on the mechanisms and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease took place at the Scientific Conference of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. The main guests were members of the Mit-AD team Assoc. Prof. Evandro F. Fang introduced the role of mitophagy in the pathophysiology of AD, and Dr. Liu Shi, whose lecture focused on plasma biomarkers of AD. The principal investigator of Mit-AD Assoc. Prof. Martin Vyhnálek talked about new developments in the clinical diagnosis of AD, and Dr. Hana Horáková about the role of neuropsychological testing in the diagnostic process. The symposium, which included a Mediterranean breakfast, was attended by more than 60 guests from the students and staff of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University.
The Scientific Conference is the annual meeting place of the research elements of Second Faculty of Medicine Charles University and Motol University Hospital. The Conference is open to all undergraduate and doctoral students and young employees of the faculty and hospital.
On Thursday the 13th, we invite you to the Satellite Symposium with Mediterranean Breakfast: From dysfunctional mitochondria to Alzheimer’s disease: why we age and how to stay young forever. Our MitAD members, Prof. Evandro F. Fang, Prof. Martin Vyhnalek, Dr. Liu Shi, and Dr. Hana Horakova, will present the recent findings in the AD research with a focus on mitophagy brain aging and AD diagnostics.
In the local hospital magazine Motol IN, we published an article for the general public on healthy aging and the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Assoc. Prof. Vyhnálek informs how to take care of your mitochondria, which are crucial for healthy aging. The full text is available on the Motol University Hospital website.
With the generous financial supports from the Nasjonalforeningen and from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the KAPPA Programme, the 2nd NO-AD International meeting was held on the 20th Oct 2021 in the Akershus University Hospital, Norway. This meeting had attracted close to 250 attendants, including 208 registered attendants via zoom and the remaining via physical attendance. The meeting was composed of 12 talks covering broad topics of the Alzheimer’s disease fields, including new molecular mechanisms of AD, the use of artificial intelligence in AD mechanistic studies and drug development, CRISPR- and gamma entrainment-based techniques on AD treatments, biomarker development for early stage of AD, and clinical treatments to AD patients. Our NO-AD international members Profs. Nancy Ip and Li-Huei Tsai were keynote speakers.
The meeting was also addressed by the principal investigators of the MIT-AD grant and their collaborators (Evandro F. Fang, Martin Vyhnalek, Liu Shi, Jan Laczó, Katerina Cechova (Veverova) a Domenica Caponio).
0:02:36 Nancy Ip (HKUST) – ‘Biomarker development and genome-editing strategies for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and treatment’.
1:08:45 Alejo J Nevado-Holgado (Oxford) – ‘Artificial Intelligence in Drug Target Discovery for Alzheimer’s Disease’. 1:38:49 Evandro Fang (Ahus, UiO) – ‘Turning up the NAD+-mitophagy axis to treat Alzheimer’s disease and the use of AI in related drug development’ 2:04:25 Linda Hildegard Bergersen (UiO) – ‘Exercise and AD’ 2:40:20 Kateřina Čechová (Charles University): – ‘Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in aging and Alzheimer disease’ 2:58:27 Noel Buckley (Oxford): ‘Modelling Alzheimer’s in a dish – how far have we come?’. 3:51:17 Martin Vyhnálek (Charles University) ‘Subjective cognitive complaints – part of normal ageing or the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease?’ 4:25:45 Tormod Fladby (Ahus, UiO) – ‘Challenges in early AD Diagnostics’ 4:51:15 Jan Laczó (Charles University) – ‘Spatial navigation in Alzheimer disease’ 5:22:43 Liu Shi (Oxford) – ‘Replication study of plasma biomarkers relating to Alzheimer’s pathology’ 6:04:53 Domenica Caponio (UiO) – ‘Changes of mitophagy in the AD human brain’ 6:19:28 Li-Huei Tsai (MIT) – ‘Non-invasive sensory stimulation to induce gamma entrainment and treat Alzheimer’s disease’
Autophagy in Health and Disease, Second Edition provides a comprehensive overview of the process of autophagy and its impact on human physiology and pathophysiology. It expands on the scope of the first edition by covering a wider range of cell types, developmental processes, and organ systems.
Autophagy plays a fundamental role in maintaining intracellular homeostasis and cell survival by degrading damaged and unnecessary subcellular components via the lysosome. Impaired autophagy is evident in otherwise “normal” elderly individuals and patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As the most common type of dementia, AD is an age-associated disease with memory loss as the primary clinical feature as well as extracellular Aβ plaques and intracellular Tau tangles as disease-defining pathological features. Recent studies in animal models of AD, AD patient-derived stem cells, and AD postmortem brain tissues suggest that compromised mitophagy/autophagy plays a causative role in AD progression. Supporting this hypothesis, pharmacological approaches to induce mitophagy/autophagy—e.g., the use of the small natural molecule oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)—slow AD progression in animal models. This chapter reviews the extant literature on autophagy in AD and covers recent progress on the molecular mechanisms of NAD+-dependent mitophagy/autophagy regulation and mechanisms underlying the anti-AD potential of NAD+. Further studies to define the NAD+-mitophagy/autophagy axis may shed light on novel therapeutics to treat AD and potentially provide insights into other neurodegenerative diseases.
