{"id":22605,"date":"2025-09-24T12:33:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arsacs.com\/?p=22605"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:18:09","slug":"targeting-cav2-1-to-recover-firing-defects-and-degeneration-of-purkinje-neurons-in-arsacs-dr-francesca-maltecca-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/targeting-cav2-1-to-recover-firing-defects-and-degeneration-of-purkinje-neurons-in-arsacs-dr-francesca-maltecca-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201c Targeting Cav2.1 to recover firing defects and degeneration of Purkinje neurons in ARSACS \u201d &#8211; Dr. Francesca Maltecca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A central theme in cerebellar ataxia is mutations in genes encoding calcium regulatory genes, highlighting the selective vulnerability of Purkinje neurons to alteration of calcium fluxes. We have recently demonstrated that the Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel (VGCC) Cav2.1 is increased in amount at the Purkinje neurons\u2019 plasma membrane in the <em>Sacs<sup>-\/-<\/sup><\/em> mouse, and this results in a striking 30% augment in Cav2.1-mediated calcium currents as compared to controls. We also found that Cav2.1 overactivation is functionally connected with the reduced pacemaking firing activity of <em>Sacs<sup>-\/-<\/sup><\/em> Purkinje neurons. Based on these findings, the project involves a parallel screening of non-selective inhibitors already in use in the clinic to validate Cav2.1 as a target, and a <em>de novo<\/em> screening of potent and selective Cav2.1 inhibitors. The latter may represent a remarkable breakthrough due to the potential therapeutic relevance in the treatment of ARSACS and also other Cav2.1-related diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"PANormalLevelIA\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Grant: $100,000<\/p>\n<p>Duration : one year<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:23% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DrFrancescaMaltecca-150x150-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21507 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Dr. Francesca Maltecca<br>Ospedale San Raffaele<br>Via Olgettina 58,20132, Milan, Italy&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contact: <a href=\"mailto:maltecca.francesca@hsr.it\">maltecca.francesca@hsr.it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A central theme in cerebellar ataxia is mutations in genes encoding calcium regulatory genes, highlighting the selective vulnerability of Purkinje neurons to alteration of calcium fluxes. We have recently demonstrated that the Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel (VGCC) Cav2.1 is increased in amount at the Purkinje neurons\u2019 plasma membrane in the Sacs-\/- mouse, and this results in [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22605"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25123,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22605\/revisions\/25123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.arsacs.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}