A. Claudio Cuello (Canada)
McGill University
Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Dr Cuello has contributed to his field of research with pioneering publications on dendritric release of neurotransmitters, the localization and role of central and peripheral neuropeptides, trophic factor-induced repair and synaptogenesis and novel applications of monoclonal antibodies in the neurosciences. During his career he collaborated very closely with Drs. William F. Ganong, Leslie Iversen and Cesar Milstein. Currently, he leads a research team working on multidisciplinary aspects (from molecular biology to cognition) of aging, models of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology, inflammation, CNS degeneration/repair and experimental therapeutics of the AD-like amyloid pathology. He has received numerous recognitions: Heinz Lehman Award, Novartis Award and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is an Honorary Professor at the Norman Bethume University (China) and at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), as well as Doctor Honoris Causa at the Federal University of Ceara (Brazil) and Honorary Doctor in Medicine at Kuopio University (Finland). His scientific accomplishments until 2001 have been summarized in “The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography” ed. Larry R. Squire, Academic Press, NY, and 2001. For his contributions in the Neurosciences and biotechnology and his role in building a successful academic department he was inducted by the Honorable David Johnson, Governor General of Canada, as an Officer of the Order of Canada in May of 2010. In 2013 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Office of the Governor General of Canada. In 2015 he received the Raices prize by the Argentine Minister of Science and Technology. He was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences 2018, and was named Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Spain in July 2021 (founded nearly 300 years ago by King Phillip the V) He maintains an active and successful research lab with close collaborations with leading labs of the UK, USA, Italy, Spain and Argentina, and is listed as a highly cited Neuroscientist by the Institute of Scientific Information, with nearly 30,000 citations, with a current H-Index is of 98 (Google Scholar)

Presenter of 1 Presentation

 Conference Calendar

PRE-RECORDED: NGF METABOLISM, ALZHEIMER’S PATHOLOGY AND PRECLINICAL BIOMARKERS

Session Name
0630 - CHOLINERGIC MECHANISMS IN AD AND PD (ID 30)
Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Thu, 17.03.2022
Session Time
09:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Room
ONSITE: 114
Lecture Time
10:55 AM - 11:10 AM
Presenter

Abstract

Abstract Body

AIM: To study NGF trophic support in Health and Disease.

METHODS: Neurochemical and pharmacological procedures.

RESULTS: We have shown that this brain NGF Metabolic pathway

-Sustains the cholinergic phenotype of basal forebrain (BF) neurons.

-In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology there is diminished proNGF to mNGF conversion and increased mNGF degradation

-In AD, the normal NGF synthesis and the failed pro-to-mature NGF conversion provokes a brain build-up of proNGF

-The above NGF metabolic deregulation is found in non-cognitively impaired (NCI) individuals with preclinical Aβ-amyloid pathology and remains physiologically normal in NCI brain samples lacking significant Aβ amyloidosis, proNGF levels correlating with cognitive scores.

-The NGF pathway is deregulated in Down Syndrome (DS) brains at clinical and preclinical AD stages.

-In DS body fluids, proNGF levels are increasingly elevated in their transition from DS without clinical AD to DS with clinical AD and predict subsequent cognitive decline.

CONCLUSIONS The failure of the NGF metabolic pathway, even at preclinical AD stages, would explain the early loss of trophic support to the NGF-dependent cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain. The correction of this brain metabolic dysfunction at stages preclinical AD should prevent their neuronal atrophy and synaptic loses. The investigation of levels of key molecules of NGF metabolic pathway in blood and cerebrospinal fluids offers an opportunity to reveal the ongoing, silent, preclinical AD pathology.

Hide