Calvelli, Hannah: Nanotherapeutics for Immune Modulation in Parkinson’s Disease
Title: Nanotherapeutics for Immune Modulation in Parkinson’s Disease
Name: Hannah Calvelli
Major: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
School affiliation: Honors College; School of Arts and Sciences
Programs: Aresty – Research or Conference Funding Recipient; Honors College Capstone
Other contributors: Nanxia Zhao, Nicola Francis, Prabhas V. Moghe
Abstract: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders in the United States, characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain. Neuronal death occurs due to the accumulation of toxic alpha synuclein (ASYN) aggregates, which are a hallmark of PD pathology. ASYN aggregation ultimately results in the activation of microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, due to oxidative stress. In this work, flash nanoprecipitation was used to fabricate two classes of nanoparticles (NPs) for immune modulation in PD.