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Volume 7, Issue 4(Suppl)
J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism, an open access journal
ISSN: 2161-0460
Euro Dementia Care 2017
September 18-19, 2017
Dementia and Dementia Care
September 18-19, 2017 Dublin, Ireland
8
th
International Conference on
Astrocytes: The future in research of Alzheimer’s disease
Soraya L Valles
University of Valencia, Spain
B
rain cells, such as astrocytes, neurons, ependimiary cells, microglia and oligodendroglia may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
The role of neurons has been studied for decades because of their role in cell communication inside the nervous system and also
in damaged brain, such as in Alzheimer’s disease. However, glial cells have been poorly studied. Astrocytes are more abundant than
neurons in brain and, moreover there are more astrocytes compared to neurons, when we progress in the phylogeny. Furthermore
Einstein’s brain has three times more astrocytes than normal brain. So many scientists are thinking about the important role of
astrocytes in memory, synapsis, brain communication, inflammation, oxidative stress, nutrition or sleep. Amyloid theory to explain
Alzheimer’s disease is now questioned. So we studied the role of astrocytes and demonstrated that after amyloid beta addition to
astrocytes and neurons, astrocytes are more resistant to the toxic than neurons producing inflammation and oxidative stress but
protected neurons in mixed culture. Using Transgenic APP/Presenilin 1 we have also demonstrated that astrocytes can be involved in
changes in inflammation and oxidative stress detected in this mice. We conclude that these kind of cells are the key to protect brain
against Alzheimer’s disease. Perhaps we do not need to eliminate amyloid beta but only protect astrocytes against amyloid effects.
Furthermore, which role play astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease and in CNS degeneration? That needs to be discussed in the future to
elaborate new drugs to protect astrocytes or, on the other hand, to look for TAU protein and its relationship with astrocytes.
Biography
Soraya L Valles graduated in 1990 in Biological Science at the University of Valencia and remained there to undertake her PhD and She attained her PhD in 1997.
In 1997, she started her postdoctoral position in England in Sheffield, UK and spent three years working in immunology, cytokines, inflammation processes. At
Present, She is the chief of the neurochemistry laboratory at University of Valencia. She works in Alzheimer’s diseases and in basic mechanisms in inflammation
and oxidative stress. She had also worked in brain cancer with the finality to obtain anticancer proteins, as pharmaceutical drugs or natural drugs.
Lilian.Valles@uv.esSoraya L Valles, J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 2017, 7:4(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0460-C1-027