Morphological and quantitative aspects of dendritic spines of neurons derived from neurospheres of 2xTg-DA double-transgenic mice (APPswe / PS1dE9) for Alzheimer's Disease and possible alterations caused by the drug memantine

• Grant number: 17/18797-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Beatriz de Oliveira Monteiro
• Grantee: Miguel Lins Quintella
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Alzheimer's Disease is increasingly prevalent in an aging society. The search for new treatments requires new experimental models, and neurospheres are excellent example because they need fewer animals for a much larger number of experiments. In addition, the neurospheres represent a plastic model, in which diverse culture conditions can be established in the research with these mini-brains. In Alzheimer's Disease, synaptic loss is the major pathological marker. This can be measured by the quantification and qualitative analysis of Dendritic Spines. Presenting these findings in an in vitro model such as the neurospheres enhances the ability to study disease and strengthens the search for new therapies. It is known that memantine has the potential to attenuate the negative neurological symptomatic effects related to memory loss, but the ability to avoid loss of dendritic spines is something that is not agreed upon in the literature. Finding the effect on cultures of neurospheres may help to clarify the effects of the drug in the pathological process of synaptic loss in Alzheimer's Disease. In this study we propose to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the dendritic spines of neurosphere cultures of 2xTg-DA double-transgenic mice (APPswe / PS1dE9) for Alzheimer's Disease and to observe possible alterations caused by the drug memantine. (AU)