Mitochondria-Nucleus communication in health and disease

Age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) have a significant social and economic impact with AD estimated to affect over30 million people and PD over 6 million people worldwide, respectively. Despite the significant burden of these diseases there is currently no cure for age-related neurodegeneration and existing treatments only interfere with disease symptoms. Researchers from the Pharmacology and Neuroscience Group, Leicester Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation, are focusing their work on understanding the complex ethiopathogenesis of these diseases and in developing novel therapeutic approaches to target the neurodegeneration process. Thus, Dr. Nicoleta Moisoi has been working on projects funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK and Parkinson’s UK to dissect the impact of mitochondria nucleus communication in neurons and microglia during neurodegenerative processes. Current projects are also including microbiome brain interactions in neurodegenerative diseases.

Rare diseases affect fewer than 1 in 2000 people in the general population and may have a genetic or non-genetic etiopathology. Currently there are over 6000 such conditions and additional conditions are being regularly identified and characterised. Pharmaceutical companies are generally in a difficult position to invest in these areas for economic reasons. Thus, patient led organisations are increasingly getting involved in supporting rare diseases research. Recently, Dr. Nicoleta Moisoi has been awarded ~USD 70K by the Project 8p foundation, USA to phenotype mitochondria-nucleus homeostasis in Chromosome 8p disorders.