Andreia Teixeira-Castro

TL;DR: A new Caenorhabditis elegans model of Machado-Joseph disease pathogenesis is described and it is revealed that the sequences flanking the polyQ-stretch in ATXN3 have a dominant influence on cell-intrinsic neuronal factors that modulatepolyQ-mediated pathogenesis.

TL;DR: A novel mouse model of MJD which expresses mutant human ataxin-3 at near endogenous levels and manifests MJD-like motor symptoms that appear gradually and progress over time is described and it is shown that Hsp90 inhibition is a promising therapeutic strategy for MJD.

TL;DR: Novel evidence of long distance network modulation by astrocytes is provided, with direct implications to cognitive function, in the dominant negative SNARE mouse model, which finds a strong cognitive impairment in tasks depending on this network.

TL;DR: A new molecular interaction is reported between wild-type ataxin-3 and NEDD8, using in vitro and in situ approaches and it is shown that this interaction is not dependent on the ubiquitin-interacting motifs in ataxIn-3, since the presence of the Josephin domain is sufficient for the interaction to occur.

TL;DR: Citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, was identified in a small molecule screen of FDA-approved drugs that rescued neuronal dysfunction and reduced aggregation using a Caenorhabditis elegans model of mutant ataxin 3-induced neurotoxicity, suggesting that small molecule modulation of serotonergic signalling represents a promising therapeutic target for Machado-Joseph disease.