Abstract
This symposium will cover recent research in the fields of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (AD and PD) towards the identification of novel therapeutics for these disorders. Potential therapies to be discussed will include: (1) Newly identified lysosomal-enhancing agents that act via the master transcriptional regulator TFEB to provide neuroprotection in a mouse model expressing mutant human parkin (Andersen), (2) a novel cannabionoid type 2 receptor inverse agonist (SMM-189) which has been shown to demonstrate immunomodulatory effects in a rat synucleopathy model of PD (Tansey), (3) use of a ketogenic diet to abrogate neuropathology associated with a mouse model of AD (Verdin), and (4) amelioration of toxic gain-of-function aopE4 defects in human iPSC-derived neurons via use of a small molecule structural corrector which acts to convert toxic apoE4 species to non-toxic apoE3.