👤 Katja Goričar

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Their treatment options are rather limited, and no neuroprotective or disease-modifying treatments are available. Anti-diabetic drugs, such as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) agonists, have been suggested as a potential therapeutic option. Assess AD, PD patients and healthy control subjects were included in the study. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease were measured in AD patients, while cognitive impairment was evaluated in PD. All participants were genotyped for three SNPs: Show less

Alcohol dependence is a chronic mental disorder that leads to decreased quality of life for patients and their relatives and presents a considerable burden to society. Incretin hormones, such as glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are endogenous gut-brain peptides, which can travel across the blood-brain barrier and access the nervous system. Their respective receptors, GIPR and GLP-1R, are expressed in the reward-related brain areas and are involved in memory formation and neurogenesis, which results in behavioral changes in rodent models. The current study investigated the potential association of genetic variability of incretin receptors with alcohol dependence and alcohol-related psychosymptomatology. Alcohol dependence and comorbid psychosymptomatology were assessed in a cohort of Slovenian male participants, comprised of 89 hospitalized alcohol-dependent patients, 98 abstinent alcohol-dependent patients, and 93 healthy blood donors. All participants were genotyped for Show less