Phil-Ok Koh
Gyeongsang National University, South Korea
Title: Catechin regulates intracellular calcium concentration and parvalbumin expression in ischemic brain injury
Biography
Phil-Ok Koh has completed her PhD at the age of 28 years from Gyeongsang National University and postdoctoral studies from University of Maryland at Baltimore, USA. She is the professor of College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University. She has published more than 180 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.
Abstract
Calcium is an essential factor that involved in modulation of cellular functions, such as cell differentiation, survival, and apoptosis. Parvalbumin is a calcium buffering protein that modulates intracellular calcium concentration. Catechin has an excellent antioxidant property and exerts a neuroprotective effect. This study investigated whether catechin can regulate parvalbumin expression and intracellular calcium concentration in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-induced cell damage and glutamate toxicity-induced neuronal cell death. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with vehicle or catechin (50 mg/kg) immediately before MCAO and cerebral cortical tissues were collected 24 h after MCAO. Catechin alleviated MCAO-induced infarction and neuronal movement deficit. MCAO induced a decrease of parvalbumin expression in cerebral cortex. However, catechin administration prevented MCAO-induced a decrease of parvalbumin. Glutamate excitotoxicity dramatically increased the intracellular calcium concentration in cultured hippocampal cells, whereas catechin attenuated an increase of intracellular calcium concentration. We observed a reduction of parvalbumin expression in glutamate-exposed cells. Catechin prevented glutamate-induced this decrease. These findings suggest that catechin exerts a neuroprotective effect through regulation of intracellular calcium concentration and parvalbumin expression in ischemic brain injury. This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST)(NRF-2018R1D1A1B07044074).
Taha Assadnejad
Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey
Title: Coexistence of MSA and PSP: A diagnostic challenge
Biography
Taha Assadnejad has started Medicine in 2015 at the age of 18 in Ondokuz Mayis Univeristy and now he has finished 4th year.He is so interested in Neurologic and movement disorders and already he has started to research and learn more about these topics.He is the president of Neuroscience society of medical faculty.
Abstract
Introduction: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive autonomic failure and parkinsonian/cerebellar features.Motor features are characterized by rigidity,slowness of movement and tendency to fall in parkinsonian subtype but ataxia,wide based gait and uncoordinated limb movements predominate in cerebellar subtype. Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is another neurodegenerative disease which is characterized by Parkinsonism, vertical gaze palsy, backward falls and cognitive dysfunction. Case: Our case is A 59 year old man who first presented with the chief complaints of dizziness and vertigo after standing up 5 years ago. Postural instability, imbalance and backward falls began unexpectedly and gradually progressed over 3 years.The patient can not walk without assistance since 2017.He also suffers from Erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, speech impairment cognitive dysfunction and decreased verbal fluency.He has usually talks or shouts during sleep and can not maintain sleep.Drugs such as Leva-dopa, Rasagiline and Amantadine were prescribed for treatment but none of them were effective. Neurological examination revealed Vertical gaze palsy, backward falls, wide based gait,postural instability, spastic dysarthria, bradykinesia, rigidity and mild cognitive dysfunction. A MRI scan of the brain revealed “Hot cross bun sign†in Pons and “Hummingbird sign†in Midbrain which are compatible with MSA and PSP respectively. Conclusion: As both MSA and PSP diseases are rare diseases,so we speculate that coexistence of these disorders in a patient should be extremely rare, as only two cases of MSA and PSP coexistence have been reported.Although postmortem autopsy is required for definitive diagnosis of MSA and PSP,the symptoms and signs of our case are compatible with probable MSA and probable PSP according to their diagnostic criteria and we speculate that MSA has progressed before PSP in this case.