Centro de Estudios de Posgrado / UAM

The vast majority of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, ALS, or prion diseases to give an example, are associated with the accumulation in the brain of a protein malplegada. Although there is evidence to indicate that the misfolding and subsequent formation of small aggregates of said protein is one of the crucial events in these diseases, the molecular mechanisms by which these aggregates cause the disease are still unknown. Recently it has been shown that the formation of misfolding proteins can be induced by injection of brain extracts from patients diagnosed with some of these diseases in animals without previous exposure to this material, never develop these alterations. These results suggest that some of the brain abnormalities associated with these neurodegenerative diseases can be induced by a mechanism similar to that occurring during propagation transmissible spongiform diseases, also known as prion diseases such as disease 'mad cow'. Our group works on the model of prion disease to understand the mechanisms of infectivity, strain and interspecies transmission. These studies are helping to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the initiation of these diseases and may contribute to the development of new strategies for prevention and intervention.