Shanghai Jiaotong University has made breakthroughs in Parkinson's disease research through animal modeling technology

  Dr. CC Gu Guohong and Dr. He Qunqing from the School of Neuroscience, Shanghai Jiaotong University have made new progress in the research of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and the relevant results have been published in "Molecular Neurobiology" recently.

  Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the third leading cause of death in the elderly after cardiovascular diseases and tumors. However, modern medicine has not yet clarified its etiology and mechanism, and related treatment drugs are lacking. Enough specificity. Cui Guohong’s rat model experiments show that NSC transplantation can improve the learning and memory ability of AD rats to a certain extent and differentiate into neurons. However, the pathological microenvironment of AD, such as Aβ deposition and immune inflammatory response, does not contribute to the survival, differentiation and functional integration of the host, which has a profound impact on the therapeutic effect of stem cell transplantation. Studies have shown that biomaterials can provide a suitable microenvironment for the growth of transplanted stem cells. This helps the transplanted stem cells to survive and differentiate. Cui Guohong designed and synthesized a self-polypeptide. It promotes the survival and differentiation of NSC in vivo and in vitro, and plays an important role in improving the effectiveness of stem cell transplantation in the treatment of AD.

  Parkinson's disease (PD) is also a common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly. He successfully established a rat PD model by injecting the anovyl vector AAV1/2 carrying the A53T point mutation α-synuclein into the substantia nigra of rats. Rats exhibited decreased substantia nigra motility and decreased dopaminergic neurons. The release of dopamine and other transmitters in the striatum, and the abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein. This model provides an excellent model tool for studying the pathological mechanism and intervention methods of PD through α-synuclein. At the same time, Heqing found that trehalose can promote the degradation of α-synuclein in the substantia nigra of rats by enhancing brain autophagy, thereby alleviating the above symptoms of PD rats.