Jerry Juang received his Ph.D. 25 years ago from the University of Wisconsin, and so his presentation here today brings his journey full-circle. Juang uses Drosophila as a model for studying the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which serves as an analogue to the progression of the disease in humans.
Enteric infection aggravates neurodegeneration by activation of TNF-JNK signaling, aggravates oxidative stress, and induces immune cells recruitment to AD brain. Genetic depletion of immune cells rescues enteric infection-aggravated neurodegeneration. Brain ROS is key for the immune cell recruitment. Gut-brain crosstalk is a fundamental regulatory system in modulating Alzheimer’s progression.
-Jacob Grace