Neuroscience – Lopez-Coviella
Professor Ignacio Lopez-Coviella
coviella@bu.edu
617-638-4850
Options: Volunteer, Work-study, Credit
Degeneration or malfunction of cholinergic neurons (i.e., those that synthesize and release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine) underlies and/or contributes to a variety of nervous system disorders, including Alzheimer’s Disease. In addition, because these neurons are important in memory processes, memory loss associated with aging may also be the result of functional abnormalities of these cells. Crucial to the development of experimental approaches to study these diseases, and to the design of treatment strategies, is the development of our understanding of the characteristics of these neurons and the mechanisms regulating their existence. Based on our preliminary data (Lopez-Coviella et al., Science, 2000), we hypothesize that bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) – a historic term based on the early discoveries of the nature of those factors, now recognized as having extensive developmental functions in various organs, including the brain -, can be potentially !
used to treat neurological disorders. The overall goal of our studies is to test the hypothesis that specific members of the BMPs family act to differentiate neuronal precursor cells into cholinergic neurons and upregulate the cholinergic phenotype of already differentiated cholinergic cells in the central nervous system. Our studies are based on accumulating evidence that shows that BMPs have profound organizing and differentiating actions in the developing nervous system, and can influence brain repair. We have shown that specific members of the BMP family dramatically upregulate the expression of the cholinergic phenotype in primary cultures of mouse brain, in a model cholinergic cell line and, in vivo, during embryogenesis.