T12 TARGETS: Understanding the chronic neurological alterations of Down syndrome and their associated phenotypes and development of molecular targets for their correction

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 02.0256

Key words (English)

Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Scientific Research

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLRT-2001-00816

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.8 Generic R&D activities

Short description (English)

See abstract

Abstract (English)

Despite a vast amount of investigation on the pathophysiology of Down syndrome(DS) (T21), the molecular, biochemical and cellular bases of this common cause of mental retardation (over 500.000 cases in Europe) are still unknown. The sequence of human chromosome 21, cells and tissues from individuals with partial or regularT21 (molecularly and phenotypically described) and functional approaches(expression profiling, yeast double hybrid, transcriptome and proteome) should permit: a/to identify the molecules that are involved in DS brain alterations and the modifier factors responsible of the phenotypic variability; b/to modelise the dosage effects of the DS transcriptome in mouse; and c/ to develop protective and therapeutic strategies for the treatment of the chronic neurologic alterations of DS patients. This understanding of DS should also provide basic knowledge about the causes of common clinical neurological alterations in humans.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 02.0256