Kizil Lab

We are glad to have this important publication out! This was a beautiful collaborative work in Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Clinical studies and basic science met to identify the gene FMNL2, which regulates the function of a critical structure in our brains: blood-brain-barrier. FMNL2 links cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer’s! We are one step closer now to understand how cardiovascular diseases increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease. We provide evidence from zebrafish, mouse and human brains

For more info:
https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/missing-link-between-alzheimers-and-vascular-disease-found

Original publication in Acta Neuropathologica:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-022-02431-6

FMNL2 regulates gliovascular interactions and is associated with vascular risk factors and cerebrovascular pathology in Alzheimer’s disease - Acta Neuropathologica Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been associated with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factors (CVRFs) during middle age and later and is frequently accompanied by cerebrovascular pathology at death. An interaction between CVRFs and genetic variants might explain the pathogenesis. Genome-wide, ...

Thanks to BPoD Medical Research Council for selecting our image from our last publication as the “beautiful picture of the day” wıth nice commentary.
This image was generated by Prabesh Bhattarai.

New Nerves Please
Alzheimer’s disease is a fatal condition caused by the unstoppable death of nerve cells in the brain. Although current treatments can relieve the symptoms of the disease or slow its progress, there’s nothing that can stop or reverse the decline. Rather than trying to prevent nerve cell death, one controversial idea for treating Alzheimer’s involves producing new brain cells to replace those that have died. But it’s not clear whether this is technically possible, or whether generating new brain cells might cause more problems than it solves. In search of answers, scientists are studying zebrafish, whose simple brains are surprisingly similar to our own. These images show nerve cells (green) in the brain of a healthy fish (left) and animals that have been treated with various molecules. Two chemicals stimulate new cell production (pink spots, centre panels) while the third (right) does not, providing a useful model for further studies.

Written by Kat Arney

Image adapted from work by Prabesh Bhattarai and colleagues
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within Helmholtz Association, Dresden, Germany
Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Published in PLOS Biology, January 2020

Originally on http://www.bpod.mrc.ac.uk/archive/2020/2/20
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Happy Valentine’s Day with the hearty brain of !