DJ-1 IN NEURODEGENERATION

Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder in the elderly population. No therapeutic treatment is now available to slow the progression of the disease. Recently, a new gene, DJ-1, has been found mutated in familiar cases of the disease. We have recently identified TTRAP as a new DJ-1 partner that may become targets for drug development. We plan to investigate how the mutations found in PD patients disrupt DJ-1 function. To this purpose we will apply a computational approach and we will combine it with in vivo and in vitro experiments. Furthermore we will study the mechanisms used by normal DJ-1 to protect neurons in the brain from degeneration. In particular we will focus our attention on oxidative stress response molecules to collect information that may be used for the establishment of new clinical trials.