Many neuropsychiatric diseases, such as Parkinson, Huntington, and Alzheimer diseases are characterized by the formation and accumulation of protein aggregates, Lewy bodies for example. Symptomatic treatments for neurodegenerative disorders and proteinopathies lose efficiency over time and are prone to adverse effects. The development and evaluation of disease-modifying drugs is hampered by the lack of disease-relevant biological (in vitro and in vivo) models.
Pr Abid Oueslati and his team at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center have created a new optogenetic-based technology, light-induced protein aggregation (LIPA), an invaluable tool to generate with a high spatiotemporal resolution and visualize protein aggregates of alpha synuclein (a-Syn) resembling those observed in the brain of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (Lewy bodies). In vivo in mice, LIPA-induced a-Syn aggregates provoke significant motor deficits (A) and the selective loss (death) of dopaminergic neurons (B and C):
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Neuroscience Axis
Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval
CONTACT PERSON
Project Manager, Life Sciences
Axelys
sebastien.bergeron@axelys.ca