CHRONOBIOLOGICAL BASIS OF AGING AND THE ALZHEIMER?S DISEASE

ANZULOVICH AC

Merlo, San Luis

Simposio; XXXV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2017

In 2005, the CEPAL and the CELADE stated that the main demographic phenomenon in this era is the population aging and urged to design specific strategies to face its undesirable consequences. Argentina is the Latin American country with the highest percentage of aged people (INDEC). Even though, there have been significant advances in the elucidation of biochemical and molecular basis undergoing aging and aging-related diseases, in the last years, just a few studies report the role of the endogenous clock and the circadian system in the cognitive functions deterioration in senile individuals or with Alzheimer?s disease (AD). Todate, there is not an effective treatment for AD neither. Thus, we aimed to explore the temporal synchronization and circadian organization of memory and learning-related factors in both, an aging and an experimental model of AD. Our results revealed a temporal (circadian) organization of factors involved in synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation, in the rat hippocampus andprefrontal cortex. Such organization is lost in aged animals, or following an i.c.v. injection of aggregated beta-amyloid peptide, probably, because of the age-related alteration of the cellular redox state and deterioration of the endogenous circadian clock. The knowledge of how aging or the beta-amyloid aggregates affect the circadian rhythmicity of factors involved in cognitive functions, would contribute to design new chronotherapeutic strategies addressed to get a healthy aging and to improve the quality of life in elderly people