On 12 June, the 44 research groups to receive part of the money raised in the La Marató fundraiser five years ago gathered at the Institute for Catalan Studies of Barcelona. Under the slogan “Solidarity does not degenerate”, the 2013 edition of the fundraiser focused on neurodegenerative diseases. It raised almost 12 million euros to support research on better prevention and diagnostic tools and new therapeutic strategies for well-known pathologies such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, frontotemporal dementia and multiple sclerosis, as well as less common ones, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, retinal degeneration and Huntington’s disease.  

 

At the conference, representatives of the various research groups had the opportunity to present the most important findings of their projects, including the study “In search of biomarkers and therapeutic targets related to cognitive impairment in the early stages of Alzheimer’s: the role of AKAP79/150, CPT1C and SSAO/VAP-1 in Aß-mediated AMPAR dysfunction”. Dr Rut Fadó, a researcher at UIC Barcelona, was responsible for explaining the main findings of the study, which was led by Dr José Rodríguez, from the UAB’s Neurosciences Institute, and in which the UIC Barcelona research group on Regulation of Lipid Metabolism in Obesity and Diabetes, led by Núria Casals, also participated. “Our study focused on identifying new therapeutic targets related to the early dysfunction at the synaptic level that takes place in Alzheimer’s disease, well before the onset of any cognitive symptoms. Of all the results obtained, the one that may be applied soonest is the molecular signature in plasma, which would enable early diagnosis of the disease”, Dr Fadó explained.