Page 39 - Memora anual Fundación CIEN 2015
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3. SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
close contact with the patients coming to CAFRS. the disease has an important systemic component
Another role of UMA is the periodic monitoring of the that manifests with peripheral alterations years be-
patients progress, from a multidisciplinary perspec- fore symptoms appear. Considering that future po-
tive, with standardized contributions of Neurology, tential therapies have to be implemented in very
Psychiatry, Neuropsychology, Health Sociology, Oc- early stages of the disease where clinical diagnosis
cupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and geriatrics. accuracy decreases, and currently accepted bio-
markers (tau, tau and p-A42) require CSF collec-
Reviews are conducted every six months, based on tion, many research groups are focusing their interest
a rigorous protocol that enables continuous and sus- in the search for biomarkers of disease in accessible
tained monitoring of each patient through checks tissues and fluids such as blood or saliva.
of their quality of life, neurological status and their
mental, affective and functional behavior. The ob- The eye is a structure that is highly innervated by the
jective of this process is to establish and collect va- sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
riables that allow for a subsequent correlation and In particular by the parasympathetic nervous system,
analysis with respect to other analytical, genetic, his- via the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, controls nu-
topathological and neuroimaging variables. merous processes such as tear secretion, pupil dia-
meter or intraocular pressure (Pintor, 2009).
In 2015 there were 53 admissions at Day Center and
Residence, 35 of whom signed consent to partici- The parasympathetic nerve terminals, coming from
pate in regular multidisciplinary evaluations. Along the ciliary ganglion, stimulate the main lacrimal
with the 34 baseline assessments, a total of 490 clini- gland through the M1 and M3 muscarinic receptors,
cal evaluations (every six months), 40 brain MRI stu- and as a consequence acetylcholine favors the pro-
dies (annually) and 249 blood tests were performed. duction of the aqueous component of the tear se-
cretion as well as proteins that are part of this (Dartt,
Research projects 2009).
CIEN Foundation supports the use of new technolo- Therefore, it is hypothesized that AD biomarkers, such
gies in prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment as Tau protein, which has been modified the activity
and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases. With of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in laboratory
these and other goals, during 2014, the following re- animals (Gómez-Ramos et al., 2009 Martinez-Eagle
search projects have conducted: et al. 2014), may also be present in human tears and
the same could happen with other AD-related pro-
Detection of proteins in the tear as tein markers such as 14.3.3 (Sluchanko NN, 2011, HY
biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease Qureshi, 2013), β-amyloid 40 and 42 (Van Setten,
1996) or some proinflammatory cytokines (Benito MJ,
Currently, many researchers believe that both the 2014, VanDerMeid KR, 2011), among others.
development of amyloid plaques, and the forma-
tion of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are relatively late The objectives of the project are:
events in the course of the disease, which may or
may not reflect the fundamental biochemical-mo- - Recruitment, characterization and
lecular dysfunctions that give rise to the disease. This classification of the participants in the project
assumption, increasingly accepted, suggests that through a comprehensive neurological and
CIEN Foundation Annual Report 2015 / 39
