Simone Baiardi, Davide Cammisuli, Claudia Capitini, Andrea Magrì, Marco Mainardi, Lorenzo Massimi, Alessandro Trentini and Alessia Vignoli are the eight researchers who have been awarded the Bando HEAVY 2022 and who will develop their research project in various Universities and Centers of Excellence throughout Italy: Bologna, Catania, Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Pisa, Rome. The Italian Alzheimer’s Research Association, after carefully evaluating the 42 requests receivedhas decided to reward eight research projects that aim to develop methods for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but also to identify prevention measures and the importance of adopting correct lifestyles.
“Objective of the Association – comments the Prof. Alessandra Mocali, President of Airalzh – is to contribute to the development of medical-scientific research on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Precisely for this reason, since 2020, thanks to private donations, the proceeds of which go totally in favor of Research, the AGYR Call has been established. The 2022 edition saw the awarding of eight projectswith a total funding of 300 thousand Euros, which is added to the 600 thousand Euros already allocated in the previous two years. An opportunity for young researchers to develop independent careers and make their own contribution, trying to slow down the course of Alzheimer’s disease”.
The winners of Call AGYR 2022 are all under 40 years of age and they developed original projects in English, which were financed with amounts ranging from approximately 22,000 to 43,000 Euros, based on requests and evaluations by the Airalzh Technical-Scientific Committee.
Il Dr. Simone Baiardi, neurologist who carries out his activity at the IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, has developed a project focused on Lewy body disease, the main co-pathology found at autoptic level in patients with Alzheimer’s (30-50%). Although the prevalence of Lewy body disease increases with age in the general population, it has been surprisingly found in young individuals with hereditary Alzheimer’s disease. The main objective of the pilot study funded by AGYR 2022 is to evaluate the prevalence of Lewy body disease in patients with Juvenile-onset Alzheimer’s disease (<65 years) by a new test in the cerebrospinal fluid. Furthermore, clinical, genetic and laboratory differences will be sought between subjects who tested positive (who have both diseases) and negative ones (who only have Alzheimer’s), which may suggest predisposing factors and help doctors suspect the presence of an association between the two pathologies.
Il Dr. Davide Maria Cammisuli is a psychologist and PhD in Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan. His project aims to detect in the elderly population (with and without cognitive decline) early signs of alterations in spatial navigation which, alongside the typical memory disturbance, constitute the initial picture of mental impairment typical of Alzheimer’s disease. This verification will be carried out through computerized tests compared to spatial cognition tasks carried out on urban routes, in order to simulate the effect of potential loss in finding the stages of a circuit covered. The experiments will be conducted with the help of wearable technology, thanks to bodies equipped with sensors for the detection of physiological parameters and a connected app.
Dr. Claudia Capitini is a research fellow at the LENS (European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy) of the University of Florence, where he focused his research on study of the factors influencing the formation of toxic aggregates of β-Amyloid (Aβ) – which contribute to causing the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s – and, in particular, in the study of Trodusquemina, a natural compound capable of reducing the toxicity of these aggregates. Indeed, recently, it has been demonstrated that Trodusquemin is capable of interacting with the cell membranes and with the nerve fibers of the brain, forming a sort of barrier which would prevent the Aβ aggregates from penetrating and exerting their toxic function. The project aims to study even more in detail if and, if so, how Trodusquemin interacts with Aβ aggregates in order to better understand the protective mechanism of the compound, also investigating the possible role played by other key factors in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s. This multidisciplinary study will contribute to a better knowledge of the action of Trodusquemina and, therefore, to its potential use as a drug for Alzheimer’s patients.
Il Dr. Andrea Magrì is a researcher in Molecular Biology at the University of Catania where he studies the mitochondria, small cellular organelles, considered real “energy plants”, since it is able to produce energy from nutrients and thus provide for the sustenance of neurons. In Alzheimer’s disease these stop working as they should and this is due, in part, to the accumulation of toxic proteins (β-amyloid) on their surfaces. The project, which will develop thanks to the AGYR call, it aims to study the interactions between β-amyloid and the proteins present on the surface of the mitochondrion (called VDAC), as well as using a small interfering molecule – the NHK1 peptide patented by Dr. Magrì together with a group of other researchers from the University of Catania – to hinder their accumulation. The NHK1 molecule has proved effective in partially restoring the activity of the mitochondria in models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Dr. Marco Mainardi, which carries out its activity at the Neuroscience Institute of the CNR (National Research Council) of Pisa has developed the LifestylAD project to understand how a healthy lifestyle can slow the decline in learning and memory caused by Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, while on the one hand the beneficial effects of physical and cognitive training on brain health are well known and also rooted in popular culture, the molecular mechanisms underlying them are not fully understood. In the LifestylAD project, some models of the Alzheimer’s disease will be exposed to an “enriched” lifestyle in motor, social and cognitive stimuli. There molecular composition of brain synapses (the contacts between neurons, a key target of Alzheimer’s disease) will then be analyzed to generate a database that will aid in understanding the mechanisms by which lifestyle can alleviate the severity of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as suggest potential targets therapeutic.
The project of Dr. Lorenzo Massimi, engaged in the ToMa group (Tomography for Medical Applications) at the Institute for Nanotechnology of the CNR in Rome starts from the fact that frailty in the elderly is a condition characterized by reduction of biological reserves and a decreased resistance adverse events (physical or psychological). This vulnerability depends on a fatigue of the physiological systems and a malfunction of the organs. Frailty is also a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease. It is therefore important to identify those alterations during aging that precede the onset of cognitive impairment. To this end, the project will compare a preclinical model that develops dementia with one that does not and, through highly sophisticated multi-organ imaging and analysis techniques, the early alterations associated with the development of dementia will be identified.
Il Dr. Alessandro Trentini is a Biologist, with a PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, at the University of Ferrara. Diagnosing and monitoring the progression of Alzheimer’s disease is not easy to do. In fact, the markers (molecules that identify the probable presence of disease) currently used require invasive sample collection methods, such as lumbar puncture for example. Previous studies have shown that two molecules – BACE1 and Aβ34 – could be good candidates as disease markers. The project aims to verify whether these molecules measured in the blood (therefore obtainable with a simple sample) are able both to identify the disease early and to monitor its progression.
Dr. Alessia Vignoli is a research fellow at the Chemistry Department of the University of Florence and his project, entitled “MEDEA”, concerns the analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance of the blood of patients with dementia or pre-dementia in order to predict the evolution of the disease on the basis of their metabolism. We will recruit 90 patients covering the full spectrum of cognitive impairment (from mild cognitive impairment, in the absence of Alzheimer’s, to dementia due to the disease). A serum sample will be collected from each patient and analyzed by NMR spectroscopy. It is hypothesized that the metabolic alterations present at the level of the central nervous system may be reflected at a systemic level in the serum of patients with Alzheimer’s and that, therefore, MEDEA may provide crucial information on the metabolic causes underlying Alzheimer’s. The identification of these alterations would be essential to plan possible future interventions, capable of preventing or slowing down the progression of the disease. Furthermore, the possibility of finding new peripheral biomarkers could provide a minimally invasive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s in its very early stage or to evaluate the prognosis of patients.