Demystifying Medicine: Autophagy: Mechanisms and Malfunctioning in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Demystifying Medicine Lecture Series Autophagy is the body's natural way to clean out damaged cells. Yet defects across the various stages of autophagy appear to be a common link among neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Understanding the breakdown of autophagy processes may offer important insights into pathogenesis and therapy. Dr. Cuervo is the Robert and Ren é e Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her lab has linked alterations in lysosomal protein degradation, a form of autophagy, with numerous neurodegenerative diseases. She has shown that restoration of normal lysosomal function prevents accumulation of damaged proteins with age, demonstrating that removal of these toxic products is possible. Dr. Ward in an investigator in the NINDS Inherited Neurodegenerative Diseases Unit. His group studies inherited age-related neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on discovering overlapping mechanisms of autosomal-dominant frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He discovered that patients with FTD caused by gene mutations develop a striking lysosomal storage disease phenotype. Interestingly, a number of other FTD-related genes encode proteins involved in endocytic trafficking, suggesting the existence of converging disease mechanisms.For more information go tohttps://demystifyingmedicine.od.nih.gov/Air date: 4/6/2021 4:00:00 PM
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