Improving old age: award-winning researcher in the fight against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease: mitochondrial disease, protein transport, mitochondria, aging, neurodegenerative diseases
20200430AD
Ulrike Topf
We have been observing the phenomenon of population aging for many years, which means a growing number of elderly people who are exposed to a higher incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. The coronavirus pandemic that has invaded the whole world has shown that especially seniors have the greatest risk of infection and post-disease complications. That is why it is so important to improve the quality of health of seniors and their safety by finding new strategies for treating age-related pathologies. Hope is the groundbreaking research of Dr. Ulrike Topf, which in the long term can contribute to the development of treatment and prevention of many serious diseases associated with aging.
Coronavirus, which has been wreaking havoc all over the world for several months, does not hit all equally. At increased risk there are seniors who should be especially careful now because they are most at risk of developing severe illness or death. At risk are especially those who are accompanied by age-related diseases. People over 65 years of age and older in the European Union constitute 19.4% of the total population. This means that almost every fifth person in the EU is 65 years old and older. Aging is a natural part of life, but the current pandemic has even more clearly shown that age-related diseases are a growing challenge, and thus a growing responsibility for society.
Symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases and their course are a burden not only for the patients themselves, but also for their caregivers. This is a very important medical, social and financial problem in populations with prolonged life expectancy. To reduce the negative effects of population aging, you need to increase not the length of people's lives, but the length of the healthy life stage. However, despite the ongoing progress in research into the causes of adulthood, no effective causal treatment has been found to date.
 
Understanding cells:
In an aging body, cellular stress overwhelms the ability of cells to respond to stress, which is why the body develops diseases associated with aging. Increasing the ability to respond to stress slows the aging of model organisms. Dr Ulrike Topf from the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw investigates cellular response to stress in yeast and nematodes. Her work focuses on mitochondria, which are often called cellular power plants, because they produce chemical molecules that act as the cell's energy currency. To cope with this task, they need over a thousand different proteins. Most mitochondrial proteins are produced in the cytosol and transported to mitochondria from there. Irregularities in the process of supplying proteins to mitochondria cause disturbances in the work of these organelles, as well as the accumulation in the cytosol of proteins that have not been successfully transported to the mitochondria. Research conducted by Dr. Ulrike Topf's team suggests that mitochondria not only produce energy, but also regulate many cellular processes, which is why their dysfunction can cause negative effects on the body, often manifesting in the form of terminal and fatal diseases.
 
The key is proper protein transport:
The researcher's work focuses on the identification and characterization of mechanisms that restore cellular and mitochondrial proteins homeostasis. Increasing the ability of cellular proteostasis slows down the aging of model organisms. Ulrike Topf is looking for ways to apply this knowledge to combat aging-related diseases in people, including Parkinson and Alzheimer's.
 
The titled scientist joined the group of outstanding scholarship holders of 2019:
Research conducted by the team of Dr. Ulrike Topf is necessary to understand the sources of processes such as aging, metabolic disorders and neurodegeneration. In the long run, they can contribute to the development of appropriate strategies for the treatment and prevention of many serious diseases associated with the presence of defective mitochondria accompanying the elderly.
Mitochondrial diseases are so far incurable and affect tissues that are most dependent on energy production - muscles, heart and brain. In the future, Dr. Ulrike Topf's research may lead to the discovery of new therapies for diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction.