Vicky Bikou, who is collaborating with Ruth de Diego and Ernest Mas on the following project, will give the talk:
Unravelling the role of D1 and D2 pathways in Huntington’s disease (HD) progression
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic, neurodegenerative disorder, which specifically affects striatal neurons, resulting in a progressive decline in muscle coordination and loss of emotional and cognitive control. Imbalance in the activity of striatal direct and indirect pathway neurons plays a crucial role on the symptomatology and progression several neurodegenerative diseases. In Huntington’s disease (HD) medium-sized spiny neurons (MSNs) of the indirect pathway (expressing DA D2 receptors) are believed to show earlier vulnerability than direct pathway MSNs (expressing DA D1 receptors). However, this theory is based on experiments done in rodent models and there is an uncertainty of how the results can be applied in humans to explain changes during the progression of HD. This study investigates the integrity of these two pathways, focusing on understanding the underlying mechanisms of HD symptomatology and identify potential markers of HD progression. To attain that we will analyze data from a behavioral task, sensitive to identify individual differences in D1 and D2 integrity, conducted by 47 HD patients in different stages of the disease. The results will be related to pre-possessed data from psychological and cognitive assessment to link individual performance to the symptomatology and progression.
Location: Online (Microsoft Teams). Click here to join the meeting
Or in person attendance: Modular Building, room 1.5
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