Inhibition of leukotriene signaling improves motor coordination in the Line 61 mouse model of Synucleinopathies
In her FFG-funded PhD thesis in cooperation with Ludwig Aigner of the Paracelsus University, Salzburg, Austria, Katharina Strempfl currently investigates whether leukotriene inhibition can improve motor impairments in Line 61 mice. Katharina treated Line 61 and non-transgenic (ntg) littermates daily with an oral film (IntelGenx Technologies) containing Montelukast, a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist that is …
Special Diet-induced Mouse Models
People’s diet can strongly influence their health and wellbeing. Certain diet ingredients can even affect the onset and progression of some diseases. Feeding mice with a special diet can therefore be used to analyze the effect of a diet or dietary component on typical disease pathologies. Depending on the genetic background of mice used for …
Clinical and Behavioral analysis of the EAE mouse model of Multiple Sclerosis
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) shows many pathological similarities to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and is therefore often used as model to mimic MS by injecting Myelin-Oligodendrocyte-Glycoprotein (MOG) in combination with pertussis toxin (PTX). C57Bl/6 mice develop clinical signs about two weeks after MOG + PTX treatment. Fingolimod (Fingo) was able to reduce clinical signs reaching significance …
In vitro assessment of ALS-related TDP-43 aggregation and stress granule formation
The RNA-binding protein TDP-43 is strongly linked to neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and FTLD. Several studies have shown that cytoplasmic TDP-43 aggregates co-localize with stress granule markers. Stress granules (SGs) are cytoplasmic inclusions that repress translation of a subset of RNAs during cellular stress. Since it was shown that SG formation contributes to accumulation of …
In vitro assessment of axonal injury and growth using DRG neurons
Pathological changes in axonal function are well known features of many neurological disorders. Nowadays, stimulation of axonal repair after injury is an important aspect for the development of new therapeutic drugs. The use of microfluidic chambers (MFCs) can provide unique insights into the axonal compartment independent of the soma. We thus established a model of …