Tharusha Jayasena
Involvement of SIRT3 and related energy metabolite changes in the Alzheimer brain
Award
Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation Project Grant
Status
Completed
Start Date
1 March 2017
About the project
Free radicals caused damage to lipids, proteins and DNA are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This damage causes energy generation to falter and therefore damaged mitochondria can lead to impaired memory and cognitive function over time. Given that this is a important hallmark of AD, and neurons are especially sensitive to insults that result from energy depletion and free radical damage, proteins such as sirtuins which are involved in the cell’s response to oxidative stress as well as energy metabolites such as NAD which are used as substrates for these proteins and others involved in DNA repair, may play a key role in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to look at sirtuin protein and related energy metabolite changes in control and AD post mortem brain tissue and potentially uncover new avenues to preserve or boost energy levels to maintain brain bioenergetics.
Where are they now?
Dr Tharusha Jayasena is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales.
