Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutics Effect on MitoNEET Expression

Document
Document
    Item Description
    Linked Agent
    Creator: Marsh, Kayle
    Creator: Snow, Sarah
    Mentor: Loe, Ashley
    Date Created
    2021
    Abstract
    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects over 5 million Americans. The disease is characterized by the formation of senile plaques of the amyloid beta and neurofibrillary tangles within the brain that can impair the patient's memory and behavior. These symptoms of AD develop slowly and worsen over time. Currently there is no known cause or cure for AD, therefore treatment is restricted to alleviating symptoms. A new approach to AD focuses on mitochondrial dysfunction, which is when the mitochondria release reactive oxidative species that cause damage and changes to the expression of tissues, proteins, and genes. MitoNEET is a newly discovered mitochondrial protein that is thought to regulate bioenergetics in cells. The focus of our research is to help resolve the mechanism of AD by identifying potential targets for treatment. Fluorescence microscopy is used to evaluate changes in protein expression. This was used to assess changes in protein expression when exposed to current AD therapeutics. One treatment is isoproterenol, which is a bronchodilator that has been shown to upregulate mitoNEET. Our preliminary studies use fluorescence microscopy to verify that isoproterenol upregulated the expression of mitoNEET in N2a cells after a 24-hour exposure. The results showed a two-fold increase in the relative integrated density when exposed to 1, 10, 100 uM of isoproterenol. Further studies will investigate mitoNEET regulation n response AD therapeutics.
    Genre
    Resource Type
    Place Published
    Slippery Rock, (Pa.)
    Language
    Extent
    1 page
    Institution
    Rights Statement

    The copyright to this item is owned by the author and falls under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)