Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Wenjie Lou

Biography

Dr. Wenjie Lou is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience. His research investigates the mechanism of brain pathologies and deregulated cellular cascades that have important implications for understanding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression.  He is currently exploring the mechanism of Apolipoprotein E (the most influential genetic risk factor for the late-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease) mediated amyloid metabolism in search for therapeutic tools against AD. In addition, He is investigating the role of Hsp90 in AD; specifically the molecular mechanisms of how Hsp90 regulates tau aggregation, amyloid deposition and aberrant cellular events in AD-related cell models and animal models. In addition, His research focuses on brain amyloid, which is generated by sequential cleavages from its precursor protein APP in specific intracellular compartments. Deregulated intracellular trafficking of APP is one of the important risk factors for brain amyloid accumulation. He study protein factors regulating the intracellular trafficking of APP and its cleavage enzymes, beta-secretase and gamma-secretase while addressing some fundamental aspects of how the intracellular trafficking influences amyloid accumulation in AD brain.

Achievements & Publications

Pioneer in identifying the role of Hsp90 in regulating tau aggregation; Pioneer in revealing and exploring the therapeutic role of PU-class Hsp90 inhibitor using neurodegenerative mouse models.

    Luo W, Wang H, Li H, Kim BS, Shah S, Lee HJ, Thinakaran G, Kim TW, Yu G, Xu H.(2003) PEN-2 and APH- 1 coordinately regulate proteolytic processing of presenilin 1. J Biol Chem, 278(10):7850 7854. PMID: 12522139

    Wang H., Luo W, Li YM., Thinakaran G., Greengard P., and Xu H. (2004) Presenilin 1 and γ-secretase inhibitors affect intracellular trafficking and cell surface accumulation of the g-secretase complex components. J Biol Chem. 279(39):40560-6. PMID: 15247291

    Zhang YW, Luo, W., Wang H., Lin, P., Vetrivel, P.S., Li, F., Wong, P.C., Farquhar, M.G., Thinakaran, G., Xu, H., (2005) Nicastrin is critical for stability and trafficking but not association of other presenilin/gamma-secretase components. J Biol Chem., 280(17):17020-6. PMID: 19914182

    Luo W, Dou F., Rodina A., Chip S., Kim J., Zhao Q., Moulick K., Aguirre J., Wu N., Greengard P., and  Chiosis G., (2007) Roles of Hsp90 in maintaining and facilitating the neurodegenerative phenotype in tauopathies, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A., 104(22):9511-6. PMID: 17517623

Research Interest

Neuroscience, Brain, Alzheimer disease

Publications