Research Interest

Study of new alterations in metabolic pathways, and of clusters and hubs in the aging nervous system and at early stages of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies, tauopathies, other frontotemporal lobar degenerations, prion diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Studies human post-mortem brain samples from our brain bank and other centers belonging to the European Brain Bank Network Consortium; translation of the results to transgenic murine models and newly generated double-transgenic animals to test possible treatments; and assessment of possible CSF biomarkers mainly based on metabolomes. Our main goal has been the identification of new pathways, networks, hubs and clusters which are modified with age and altered at the initial stages of common neurodegenerative diseases in order to recognize putative targets and treatments for therapeutic prevention.

Technologies & Methods

• Abnormal protein aggregate analysis
• Molecular neuropathology
• Combined use of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, redox proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics and bioinformatic processing followed by validation by qRT-PCR, western blotting, ELISA, immunohistochemistry and enzymatic studies

Active Projects

• • CIBER en Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas. Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo. CB06/05/0002. Isidro Ferrer.

• • Conveni específic pel projecte implicació de RNAs No Codificants (miRNAs) en l’esclerosi lateral amiotròfica. ELA Research Foundation. PROJECTE ELA. Isidro Ferrer.

• • Modulation of Tau seeding and pathology in tauopathies by BBB-nanocarriers, epitope selective vaccination and ectoPrP Tau receptor bodies (STOPTauPATHOL). Fundació ‘La Caixa’. HR18-00452. Isidro Ferrer.

• • 3 Confidential agreements.

Featured Publications

• • Álvarez-Marimon, E., Castillo-Michel, H., Reyes-Herrera, J., Seira, J., Aso, E., Carmona, M., Ferrer, I., Cladera, J., & Benseny-Cases, N. (2021). Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence and FTIR Signatures for Amyloid Fibrillary and Nonfibrillary Plaques. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 12(11), 1961–1971. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00048

• • Barranco, N., Plá, V., Alcolea, D., Sánchez-Domínguez, I., Fischer- Colbrie, R., Ferrer, I., Lleó, A., & Aguado, F. (2021). Dense core vesicle markers in CSF and cortical tissues of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Translational Neurodegeneration, 10(1), 37.
    https://doi.org/10.1186/s40035-021-00263-0

• • Benseny-Cases, N., Álvarez-Marimon, E., Aso, E., Carmona, M., Klementieva, O., Appelhans, D., Ferrer, I., & Cladera, J. (2021). In situ identification and G4-PPI-His-Mal-dendrimer-induced reduction of early-stage amyloid aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease transgenic mice using synchrotron-based infrared imaging. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 18368. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96379-4

• • Blanco-Palmero, V. A., Rubio-Fernández, M., Antequera, D., Villarejo-Galende, A., Molina, J. A., Ferrer, I., Bartolome, F., & Carro, E. (2021). Increased YKL-40 but Not C-Reactive Protein Levels in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Biomedicines, 9(9), 1094. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9091094

• • Diaz-Lucena, D., Kruse, N., Thüne, K., Schmitz, M., Villar-Piqué, A., da Cunha, J., Hermann, P., López-Pérez, Ó., Andrés-Benito, P., Ladogana, A., Calero, M., Vidal, E., Riggert, J., Pineau, H., Sim, V., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., Del Río, J. A., Marín-Moreno, A., Espinosa, J. C., … Llorens, F. (2021). TREM2 expression in the brain and biological fluids in prion diseases. Acta Neuropathologica, 141(6), 841–859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-021-02296-1

• • Ferrer, I., Andrés-Benito, P., Ausín, K., Pamplona, R., del Rio, J. A., Fernández-Irigoyen, J., & Santamaría, E. (2021). Dysregulated protein phosphorylation: A determining condition in the continuum of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Pathology, 31(6), e12996. https://doi.org/10.1111/bpa.12996

• • Guijarro, I. M., Garcés, M., Andrés-Benito, P., Marín, B., Otero, A., Barrio, T., Carmona, M., Ferrer, I., Badiola, J. J., & Monzón, M. (2021). Neuroimmune Response Mediated by Cytokines in Natural Scrapie after Chronic Dexamethasone Treatment. Biomolecules, 11(2), 204. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11020204

• • Jové, M., Cabré, R., Mota-Martorell, N., Martin-Garí, M., Obis, È., Ramos, P., Canales, I., Galo-Licona, J. D., Sol, J., Nogueras, L., Torres, P., Portero-Otín, M., Ayala, V., Ferrer, I., & Pamplona, R. (2021). Age-Related Changes in Lipidome of Rat Frontal Cortex and Cerebellum Are Partially Reversed by Methionine Restriction Applied in Old Age. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(22), 12517. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms222212517

• • Lidón, L., Llaó-Hierro, L., Nuvolone, M., Aguzzi, A., Ávila, J., Ferrer, I., Del Río, J. A., & Gavín, R. (2021). Tau Exon 10 Inclusion by PrPC through Downregulating GSK3β Activity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(10), 5370. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22105370

• • Morató, X., Garcia-Esparcia, P., Argerich, J., Llorens, F., Zerr, I., Paslawski, W., Borràs, E., Sabidó, E., Petäjä-Repo, U. E., Fernández-Dueñas, V., Ferrer, I., Svenningsson, P., & Ciruela, F. (2021). Ecto-GPR37: a potential biomarker for Parkinson’s disease. Translational Neurodegeneration, 10(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40035-021-00232-7

• • Olabiyi, B. F., Fleitas, C., Zammou, B., Ferrer, I., Rampon, C., Egea, J., & Espinet, C. (2021). proNGF Involvement in the Adult Neurogenesis Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(19), 10744. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910744

• • Rossi, C., Fernàndez, A., Torres, P., Ramirez-Nuñez, O., Granado- Serrano, A. B., Fontdevila, L., Povedano, M., Pamplona, R., Ferrer, I., & Portero-Otin, M. (2021). Cell Stress Induces Mislocalization of Transcription Factors with Mitochondrial Enrichment. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(16), 8853. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22168853

Knowledge transfer & Innovation

• • Mitochondrial markers of neurodegenerative diseases.. AVCRI247-E. Marta Barrachina, Isidre Ferrer, Marta Blanch