Congratulations to CPIN Faculty Dr. Joanne Nash and CPIN Trainee Dennison Trinh on their recent publication

Congratulations to CPIN Faculty Dr. Joanne Nash (Associate Professor, CSB, right) and CPIN Trainee Dennison Trinh (PhD Candidate, CSB, left) on their recent publication titled, “Parkinson’s disease pathology is directly correlated to SIRT3 in human subjects and animal models: Implications for AAV.SIRT3-myc as a disease-modifying therapy" in Neurobiology of Disease. 

SIRT3 is a mitochondrial protein deacetylase with cytoprotective and longevity enhancing effects in many organisms, from yeast to humans. In post-mortem tissue from subjects with Parkinson’s disease, Trinh et al. demonstrate an inverse correlation between levels of phosphorylated a-synuclein and Sirtuin3 (SIRT3). This suggests a link between Parkinson’s pathology and SIRT3 levels. They also show that in a rat seeding model of a-synuclein, genetic enhancement of SIRT3 using the recombinant adeno-associated virus, AAV.SIRT3-myc, reduced aggregation of a-synuclein in the brain. The Nash lab has previously shown that genetic enhancement of SIRT3 is both neurorestorative and restores motor function. These effects are mediated through stabilisation of mitochondrial metabolism and reducing oxidative stress. This publication further validates their previous studies showing that elevation of SIRT3 levels is a potential disease-modifying solution for PD.

Read more about the publication here.