Laura Torres-Garcia

Lund University | LU · BMC - Biomedical Center

Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are characterized by pathological accumulation and aggregation of different amyloidogenic proteins, α-synuclein (aSyn) in PD, and amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau in AD. Strikingly, few PD and AD patients' brains exhibit pure pathology with most cases presenting mixed types of protein deposits in the brai...

The proper function of the nervous system is dependent on the appropriate timing of neuronal firing. Synapses continually undergo rapid activity-dependent modifications that require feedback mechanisms to maintain network activity within a window in which communication is energy efficient and meaningful. Homeostatic synaptic plasticity (HSP) and ho...

Synaptic changes and neuronal network dysfunction are among the earliest changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4), the major genetic risk factor in AD, has been shown to be present at synapses and to induce hyperexcitability in mouse knock-in brain regions vulnerable to AD. ApoE in the brain is mainly generated by astrocytes,...

Aggregation of α-synuclein is associated with neurodegeneration and a hallmark pathology in synucleinopathies. These aggregates are thought to function as prion-like particles where the conformation of misfolded α-synuclein determines the traits of the induced pathology, similar to prion diseases. Still, little is known about the molecular targets...

Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of lives worldwide. This terminal disease is characterized by the formation of amyloid aggregates, so-called amyloid oligomers. These oligomers are composed of β-sheet structures, which are believed to be neurotoxic. However, the actual secondary structure that contributes most to neurotoxicity remains unknown....

Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among the earliest changes in AD is endosomal enlargement in neurons, which was reported as enhanced in ApoE4 carriers. ApoE is thought to be internalized into endosomes of neurons, whereas β-amyloid (Aβ) accumulates within neuronal endosomes early in...

Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among the earliest changes in AD is endosomal enlargement in neurons, which was reported as enhanced in ApoE4 carriers. ApoE is thought to be internalized into endosomes of neurons, while β-amyloid (Aβ) accumulates within neuronal endosomes early in AD...

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by the accumulation of small, mature CD5+ B lymphocytes in the blood, marrow, and lymphoid organs. Cell survival depends on interaction with the leukemic microenvironment. However, the mechanisms controlling CLL cell survival are still incompletely understood. Macrophage migration-inhibitory facto...

Microglia cells are the macrophage population within the central nervous system, which acts as the first line of the immune defense. These cells present a high level of heterogeneity among different brain regions regarding morphology, cell density, transcriptomes, and expression of different inflammatory mediators. This region-specific heterogeneit...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is increasingly seen as a disease of synapses and diverse evidence has implicated the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in synapse damage. The molecular and cellular mechanism(s) by which Aβ and/or its precursor protein, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) can affect synapses remains unclear. Interestingly, early hyperexcitability has...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are characterized by pathological accumulation and aggregation of different amyloidogenic proteins, α-synuclein (aSyn) in PD, and amyloid-β (Aβ) and Tau in AD. Strikingly, few PD and AD patients’ brains exhibit pure pathology with most cases presenting mixed types of protein deposits in the brai...

The remedy of memory deficits has been inadequate, as all potential candidates studied thus far have shown limited to no effects and a search for an effective strategy is ongoing. Here, we show that an expression of RGS14414 in rat perirhinal cortex (PRh) produced long-lasting object recognition memory (ORM) enhancement and that this effect was med...

Aggregation of α-synuclein is associated with neurodegeneration and a hallmark pathology in synucleinopathies. These aggregates are thought to function as prion-like particles where the conformation of misfolded α-synuclein determines the induced pathologys traits similar to prion diseases. Still, little is known about the molecular targets facilit...