PeerJ Editor
0 Points
Patrizia Longone
PeerJ Editor
Summary
Team Leader of the Molecular Neurobiology Unit, Experimental Neurology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
Adjunct Professor of Physiology for the Graduate Course of Nursing and the Graduate Course of Speech Therapy, University of “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy.
Editorial Board Member
PeerJ - the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences
Work details
Research Team Leader
Fondazione Santa Lucia
Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology
The research carried out by the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory focused, in particular, on the role played by glutammatergic excitotoxicity in the degeneration of spinal motoneurons in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (SLA). The Laboratory has shown that some receptors activated by excitatory glutamate neurotransmitter express different isoforms and subunits in the spinal cord of an experimental model of familial SLA.
Primary neuronal cultures and methods of biochemistry and molecular biology were used for the study. We have also shown that these differences make AMPA receptors more active and can depolarize the neuron faster and longer.
Using an experimental model of SLA we have shown that alteration of the function and expression of the glutamate matrix alter the shape, number and size of the cortical dendritic spines as well as modify the expression of its receptors and neuronal function. The work was carried out in collaboration with the CNR of Rome and Pisa and with the Experimental Neurology Laboratory of the Santa Lucia Foundation.