Research at the lab of Dr. Attila Köfalvi
Research at the Laboratory of Neuromodulation and Metabolism (since 2010)
Brain glucose metabolism is tightly coupled to neural activity. My lab investigates how modulators of neural activity regulate cerebral energy metabolism. The neuromodulators we are currently interested in and show promising therapeutic potential are adenosine, endocannabinoids, glucocorticoids, serotonin and insulin-like peptides.
Why is this research important? All neurological and psychiatric disorders are linked with persistent changes in glucose metabolism in very specific regions in the human brain. 18F-deoxyglucose and functional MRI imaging help neurologists detect these alterations. These metabolic dysregulations often precede the loss of brain cells by years. Hence, understanding the selective early markers of brain disorders can help the physicians to categorize the illness and select the appropriate treatments as early as possible. Many times, early recognition of the disease and swift decision on the treatment make the difference. Hence, we also would like to know if the restoration of the impaired brain glucoregulation could improve the outcome of the given brain disease, or even, prevent the onset of it. We are studying basic signalling systems, both in vitro and in vivo in animal models with the future aim of re-testing the promising ideas in humans.
