ePoster

Cellular and molecular footprint of aging in a defined neuronal network encoding associative memory

István Fodor, Bence Gálik, Péter Urbán, János Schmidt, Réka Svigruha, György Kemenes, Ildikó Kemenes, Zsolt Pirger
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

István Fodor, Bence Gálik, Péter Urbán, János Schmidt, Réka Svigruha, György Kemenes, Ildikó Kemenes, Zsolt Pirger

Abstract

Due to the complexity of CNS, studying the aging processes at the level of neural circuits and individually identified neurons is not an easy task in vertebrates, hence aging research heavily relies on invertebrate models. One such model is the great pond snail (Lymnaea stagnalis), which has been used extensively to study cognitive aging.We made the neuronal transcriptome assembly of Lymnaea and identified several evolutionarily conserved homolog sequences to genes involved in aging, age-related memory impairment, and neurodegenerative diseases of vertebrates including humans. Using young (3-4-month) and old (12-16-month) snails, we investigated the age-related cellular and molecular changes in the whole CNS and in an identified key interneuron of implicit learning, the Cerebral Giant Cell (CGC). In the whole CNS, the expression of 960 transcripts significantly changed during aging. Highlighting, the expression of several key molecules of learning showed an age-related decline. In the CGC, the expression of 143 transcripts showed an age-dependent manner. Using a novel HPLC-MS method for lipidomics, we identified 291 lipids in the whole CNS and showed that the amount of 79 lipids significantly changed during aging.The identified cellular and molecular changes both at the system and single-cell levels during aging may contribute to age-related memory impairment. Based on the preliminary results, the involvement of the genetic modification method can open avenues for the investigation of molecular processes underlying age-related memory decline in more detail leading to the discovery of novel mechanisms operating not just in molluscs but also in higher organisms.

Unique ID: fens-24/cellular-molecular-footprint-aging-defined-f8e0971c