Grant: Doctoral Research Award - Priority Announcement: Huntington Disease

The world and Canadian population shift to an older demographic and and we see an increase in neurological disorders, especially neurodegenerative diseases that result in the progressive death of neurons. There is currently no effective treatment for patients with these disorders. The neuron is a complex cell that has a high energy demand. Often, in brain diseases, the metabolism is disrupted and it is possible that restoration of energy balance may help neurons. Although it was shown that caloric restriction has the effect of lengthening life expectancy, we believe that this mechanism is not the most suitable in the treatment of diseases of the nervous system. In this project, we have shown that a diet rich in energy, mainly glucose, the sole supplier of energy in the brain, results in better survival of neuronal cells. If this mechanism is conserved in humans, it is possible that a diet enriched with glucose can slow the symptoms associated with brain diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington disease and perhaps several others. The project proposed here will explore the different pathways involved in the beneficial effect of glucose. To do this we will use C. elegans, a simple organism that has proven his value in the study of cell survival.