News New publication: Altered DNA base excision repair profile in brain tissue and blood in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder that is the main cause of dementia globally. AD is associated with increased oxidative stress, resulting from imbalance in production and clearance of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can damage DNA and other macromolecules, leading to genome instability and disrupted cellular functions. Base excision repair (BER) plays a major role in repairing oxidative DNA lesions. Here, we compared the expression of BER components APE1, OGG1, PARP1 and Polβ in blood and postmortem brain tissue from patients with AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy controls (HC).

Results: BER mRNA levels were correlated to clinical signs and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for AD. Notably, the expression of BER genes was higher in brain tissue than in blood samples. Polβ mRNA and protein levels were significantly higher in the cerebellum than in the other brain regions, more so in AD patients than in HC. Blood mRNA levels of OGG1 was low and PARP1 high in MCI and AD.

Conclusions: These findings reflect the oxidative stress-generating energy-consumption in the brain and the importance of BER in repairing these damage events. The data suggest that alteration in BER gene expression is an event preceding AD. The results link DNA repair in brain and blood to the etiology of AD at the molecular level and can potentially serve in establishing novel biomarkers, particularly in the AD prodromal phase.

 

http://molecularbrain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13041-016-0237-z

News 3rd Nordic Symposium on Super-resolution microscopy & Optogenetics NSSO2015

 Time: June 4 2015 9 am - 4 pm
Venue: Domus Medica 4, L-200, University of Oslo, Norway

For registration please visit this link

Addendum: The NSSO2015 symposium was immediately fully booked.

Contact:

Mari Støen at Mari.Stoen@rr-research.no
Hans Thorn at hans.thorn@zeiss.com
Aphirak Juthajan at aphirak.juthajan@zeiss.com

For more information please go to the "more" link below.


About the group

We are an international group with multidisciplinary expertise.

Our group members have different backgrounds and training, from medical microbiology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, protein biochemistry, animal models, systematics and evolutionary biology.

Our aim is to unravel mechanisms involved in the adaptations of two important pathogens with a global spread.

We conduct advanced research with strong international networks and communicate new knowledge to the public. It is also of high priority for us to educate new specialists in this field in our research curriculum.

Resources

We are currently funded by grants from the Research Council of Norway, EU, OUS, CAMST / FUGE, Helse SørØst, etc.