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What is Parkinson’s disease? Parkinson's disease can be seen as a neurodegenerative disease because it is associated with the loss of nerve cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta that produce dopamine. Parkinson's disease is a long-term chronic and progressive movement disorder that slowly develops over time. Parkinson's has been called "the great imitator" because so many of its symptoms mimic other diseases. Parkinson's disease is characterized by resting tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement and impaired balance and coordination. Parkinson's disease primarily affects movement and has no cure, but medications and therapies can …

Adhesion Molecules Direct cell-cell interactions are maintained and regulated by cell adhesion molecules. The expression of adhesion molecules directs inflammatory responses (Walpola et al., 1994). Early adhesion molecules include P and E selectins which slow down leukocyte movements along the endothelium wall so adhesion molecules such as VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 can attach to the ligand on leukocytes (Leeuwenberg et al., 1992, Libby, 2006). Soluble forms of these adhesion molecules are also found in the supernatant of cytokine activated cultured endothelial cells (Pigott et al., 1992). In atherosclerosis, adhesion molecules are upregulate …

Ralitsa R. Madsen – University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories Each one of us is the result of an extraordinary developmental process during which a single fertilised egg turns into more than a trillion cells. This is critically dependent on exquisite coordination of fundamental cell behaviours including growth, migration and “decisions” to differentiate into cell types with specialised functions. When co-ordination is lost, either during development or in adulthood, disease results. Cancer is one severe consequence of dysregulation, but in some people, loosening of growth controls may arise during development an …

Ahmad Gazali PhD candidate, University of Eastern Finland Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease where the pancreatic β cells that produce insulin, a key hormone involved in the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, are destroyed through dysregulated immune responses. Clinical manifestations of T1D In humans, the clinical manifestation of T1D is typically preceded by a preclinical phase in which diabetes-associated autoantibodies (DAAs) can be detected in the circulation (1), also known as early pre-diabetic stage. Shortly before the manifestation of clinical diabetes, children with circulating DAA exhibit impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in oral glucose test …

Key Points Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) refers to the accumulation of fat in the liver that is not caused by excessive alcohol consumption. It can progress to more severe diseases including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer and end-stage liver disease Metabolic syndromes such as obesity and insulin resistance and genetic mutations can increase the likelihood of developing NAFLD. NAFLD reversal can be achieved by losing weight and implementing a healthier lifestyle. …

By Ciara Coleman PhD General Introduction Coeliac Disease (CD) is defined as a common, chronic inflammatory disease of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals and is triggered by exposure to the storage protein of wheat – gluten – and similar proteins in related grains (Schuppan et al., 2009). The word coeliac, meaning “hollow” in Greek, was first described by the Greek physician Aretaeus in the first century AD (Thomas, 1945). Although the first real description of Coeliac Disease came in 1888 by Samuel Gee (Gee, 1888), the link between Coeliac Disease and diet wasn’t esta …

By Juan Quintana, PhD student, University of Edinbrugh What are Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)? The World Health Organization (WHO) defines NTDs as a group of communicable, poverty-promoting diseases, which affect more than one billion people worldwide (Herricks et al., 2017). These diseases are primarily concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in regions of South America and Asia (Herricks et al., 2017). The stigma surrounding these diseases, and their impact on children and women’s health, and worker productivity, are all factors that negatively contribute to the economic burden in these countries (Tur …

What is preeclampsia? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in ten pregnant women is affected by hypertensive disorders, and preeclampsia alone accounts for one in seven maternal deaths (1). Preeclampsia is defined as a hypertensive disorder that can complicate pregnancy after 20 weeks of gestation although it is debatable whether critical pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress responses are triggered in certain individuals nearly after conception. If the condition is progressive or left unattended, it can be further complicated by neurological dysregulations, a condition known as eclampsia. Preeclampsia cla …

Shelly Pathak PhD candidate, University of Leeds SAIDs Systemic Auto-inflammatory diseases (SAIDs) have been defined as a group of mainly inherited disorders due to ‘abnormal hyper activation of the innate immune system’ (1). These conditions lack the characteristic features of an adaptive immune response, such as high titre antibodies or antigen specific T cells, usually seen in classical autoimmune diseases (2). Periodic Fever Syndromes (PFS) are a branch of conditions encompassed within SAIDs and form the generally more well-known and characterised conditions. Periodic Fever Syndromes It was 1997 when the term ‘auto-inflammatory disease’ was f …

By Anusha Senevirante, Post-Doctoral researcher, Imperial College London With non-communicable diseases (or NCDs, which include heart disease, diabetes, cancer) now responsible for the most deaths worldwide, large investments into research on these diseases are helping us understand their causes. Many of these diseases have something in common, they involve chronic inflammation. Cells normally triggered by the immune system to fight infection, are persistently activated by endogenous factors within the body, eventually causing damage to bodily tissues and beginning the disease processes involved in the development of diabetes, cancer and atheroscl …

Ana Catarina Ferreira Psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, are highly prevalent conditions and its incidence is expected to increase as individuals attempt to meet the crescent demands of the current society. Such disorders are quite often long lasting and considered to occur, among other factors, as the result of the chronic exposure to psychological stress, thus severely affecting the quality of life and work productivity. Hippocampus and Adaptive Responses In the regulation of emotional behaviours and cellular and endocrine responses to stressful events, the limbic system, and particul …

By Diana-Madalina Stan, PhD student, University of Salford Disease Description Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is a neurodegenerative disorder that mainly affects the elderly. AD International reported 46.8 million people suffering from AD in 2015 and the number is presumed to be 50 million at present. AD pathology includes abnormal protein deposits including neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques. Aggregated tau protein undergoes abnormal hyperphosphorylation which changes the microtubule stability, the primary function of this protein (Lace, 2009). As a consequence, the cellular integrity and the cy …

By Pietro Maria Bertelli, PhD Candidate, Queens University Belfast Introduction Eye complications are very frequent in patients with diabetes, and this can lead to vision impairment and blindness 1,2. A better understanding of the pathophysiology of diabetic vascular complications is needed to facilitate the development of novel treatments. Diabetes has been previously associated with ageing and cellular senescence 3, 4. Retinal blood vessels, composed of endothelial cells and pericytes, are significantly affected by diabetic conditions 5–7. We are evaluating the impact of diabetes on endothelial cell function at the cellular and molecul …

By Ana Catarina Ferreira, PhD Candidate, Univeristy of Minho, Portugal Psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, are highly prevalent conditions and their incidence is expected to increase as individuals attempt to meet the crescent demands of the current society. Such disorders are quite often long lasting and considered to occur, among other factors, as the result of the chronic exposure to psychological stress, thus severely affecting the quality of life and work productivity. Regulation of Emotional Behaviours In the regulation of emotional behaviours and cellular and endocrine respon …

By Sonika Singh PhD candidate, University of Nottingham A Devastating Disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and inflammatory disease based on autoimmunity[1], mainly affecting the central nervous system (CNS) in young white adults[2]. MS is a disease which involves damage to the myelin sheath, that is a lipoprotein-based insulation of the axons. This sheath is essential for the electrical activity and saltatory conduction of nerve impulses and is an important part of the nervous system [2]. Areas of inflammation, axonal loss, demyelination and gliosis, occurring throughout the brain and spinal cord are the distinctive features o …

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequently occurring cancers and there are 630,000 new cases diagnosed every year worldwide (De Minicis et al. 2013). HCC develops frequently from chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver (Thorgeirsson and Grisham 2002). These conditions result in hepatocyte destruction and promotion of immune cell invasion of the liver tissue, which in turn results in changes of the matrix and micro-environment of the liver (Bosch et al. 1999). Hepatitis B virus About 80% of HCC develops from hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB) (Bosch et al. 1999). The development of HCC can take nea …

Stephen Reynolds, PhD Student, CERVIVA and Trinity College Dublin We hear almost daily now how everyone in their lifetime will be touched by cancer either directly or through a close family member. Cancer is our modern plague but even though it is so prevalent in modern society every cancer type is unique whether it is down to the type of cell that has become cancerous, it’s location in our body, mutations it’s acquired, was inherited or non-inherited and so forth. It is this lack of homogeneity that means there is no Silver Bullet for cancer treatment and the same is true for the testing and diagnosing cancers that arise in the population. The perfect screening pr …

Overview of Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major epidemic that affects over 347 million people worldwide (Danaei et al. 2011). The World Health Organization predicts that the incidence of DM will rapidly increase with the number doubling by 2030 (Alwan et al. 2011; World Health Organization 2014). There are two major forms of DM, type 1 and type 2, which are clinically characterized by hyperglycaemia due to insulin insufficiency (Mathis et al. 2001). Type 1 diabetes (T1D), an autoimmune response resultant of genetic and environmental factors in which pancreatic β-cells within the islets of Langerhans are destroyed, comprises of appr …