Seminar Announcement
Title: The Role of Salivary Lactoferrin in the Development and Progression of Alzheimer's Disease and Its Potential as a Diagnostic Biomarker: May it Reflect Microglia Function and Neuroinflammation?
Date: Friday, 21 February. 2025
Time: 2:00 PM CET (Italian, German, and Spain, French time)
Avenue: Aula Luciani, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer,” Building CU027 (street level), Sapienza University of Rome (entrance in Viale Regina Elena 332).
Speaker:
Dr. Deborah Romualdi (Carlos III Institute of Health in Madrid)
Early-stage researcher in the Peripheral Biomarker-Based Combinatorial Early Diagnostics for Dementia (CombiDiag) project, part of the Horizon Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks (H2021-MSCA-DN-2021).
Zoom link: https://uniroma1.zoom.us/j/84878894069?pwd=EGYrbxiMmLM3YOJv6MxpX2OMXZsygY.1
About the Speaker:
Deborah Romualdi holds a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Perugia. Her PhD research focuses on the identification and validation of salivary biomarkers for the early diagnosis of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
As a researcher in the Alzheimer’s Neurobiology Laboratory led by Dr. Eva Carro at the Carlos III Institute of Health in Madrid (ResearchGate Profile), she investigates the functions of lactoferrin, a key protein, and its detection in biological samples (saliva, plasma, and postmortem tissues) from AD patients at both early and advanced stages. She also explores lactoferrin expression in the central nervous system (CNS) using APP/PS1 mouse models and BV2 microglial cell cultures.
Seminar Overview
Among the many molecules present in saliva, lactoferrin has emerged as a potential biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis or assessment in Precision Medicine. Research by Carro et al. demonstrated that salivary lactoferrin levels (sLTF) are significantly reduced in AD patients and are inversely correlated with cognitive decline when compared to healthy individuals.
Exciting new findings from Dr. Carro’s group (pending publication) reveal for the first time the presence of lactoferrin in the CNS, with expression levels closely linked to neuroinflammation. Studies using APP/PS1 mouse models have shown its localization in microglia, suggesting a role in modulating neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. These findings reinforce the hypothesis that lactoferrin is not only a promising salivary biomarker for AD detection but may also play a direct functional role in reflecting neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative processes in disease progression and other neurodegenerative disorders.
