Publications by authors named "A Pereira-Santos"

Background: In Parkinson's patients, intestinal dysbiosis can occur years before clinical diagnosis, implicating the gut and its microbiota in the disease. Recent evidence suggests the gut microbiota may trigger body-first Parkinson Disease (PD), yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aims to elucidate how a dysbiotic microbiome through intestinal immune alterations triggers PD-related neurodegeneration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accumulating evidence suggests that gut inflammation is implicated in neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Despite the numerous connections it remains unclear how the gut and the brain communicate and whether gut dysbiosis is the cause or consequence of these pathologies. Importantly, several reports highlight the importance of mitochondria in the gut-brain axis, as well as in mechanisms like gut epithelium self-renewal, differentiation, and homeostasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The microbial toxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), which is derived from cyanobacteria, targets neuronal mitochondria, leading to the activation of neuronal innate immunity and, consequently, neurodegeneration. Although known to modulate brain inflammation, the precise role of aberrant microglial function in the neurodegenerative process remains elusive. To determine if neurons signal microglial cells, we treated primary cortical neurons with BMAA and then co-cultured them with the N9 microglial cell line.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with an unknown cause. Recent research has highlighted the importance of the gut in neuronal and immune maturation through the exchange of nutrients and cellular signals. This has led to the "gut-first PD" hypothesis, which aims to explain many of the sporadic cases and their prodromal intestinal symptoms, such as constipation and intestinal α-synuclein (aSyn) aggregation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In a great partnership, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the Hertie Foundation organized the FENS-Hertie 2022 Winter School on 'Neuro-immune interactions in health and disease'. The school selected 27 PhD students and 13 postdoctoral fellows from 20 countries and involved 14 faculty members experts in the field. The Winter School focused on a rising field of research, the interactions between the nervous and both innate and adaptive immune systems under pathological and physiological conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF