Publications by authors named "Z Papadopoulou-Daifoti"

Article Synopsis
  • Increased levels of alpha-synuclein (ASYN) and lower levels of Nurr1 are linked to the development of Parkinson's disease (PD), with ASYN negatively affecting Nurr1.
  • A specific mouse model with overexpressed ASYN and reduced Nurr1 levels did not show typical PD symptoms, though it had altered dopamine levels and behavior.
  • The study suggests that the balance of ASYN and Nurr1 is crucial for dopamine system regulation and may play a role in the neuropsychiatric features of PD.
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Duplication/triplication mutations of the SNCA locus, encoding alpha-synuclein (ASYN), and loss of function mutations in Nurr1, a nuclear receptor guiding midbrain dopaminergic neuron development, are associated with familial Parkinson's disease (PD). As we age, the expression levels of these two genes in midbrain dopaminergic neurons follow opposite directions and ASYN expression increases while the expression of Nurr1 decreases. We investigated the effect of ASYN and Nurr1 age-related expression alterations in the pathogenesis of PD by coupling Nurr1 hemizygous with ASYN(s) (heterozygote) or ASYN(d) (homozygote) transgenic mice.

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L. natural compounds have been extensively used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. Recent research evidence is now emerging in support of its therapeutic potential for different pathologies including neurodegenerative diseases.

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Background: Natural products are a significantly underutilized source of potential treatments against human disease. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prime example of conditions that could be amenable to such treatments as suggested by recent findings.

Objective: Aiming to identify novel potentially therapeutic approaches against AD, we assessed the effects of Cichorium spinosum and Sideritis scardica extracts, both distinct components of the Mediterranean diet.

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The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are connected in a reciprocal manner: whereas the hippocampus projects directly to the PFC, a polysynaptic pathway that passes through the nucleus reuniens (RE) of the thalamus relays inputs from the PFC to the hippocampus. The present study demonstrates that lesioning and/or inactivation of the RE reduces coherence in the PFC-hippocampal pathway, provokes an antidepressant-like behavioral response in the forced swim test and prevents, but does not ameliorate, anhedonia in the chronic mild stress (CMS) model of depression. Additionally, RE lesioning before CMS abrogates the well-known neuromorphological and endocrine correlates of CMS.

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