Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Behavior

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease

Dennis Chan¹, Laura Marie Gallaher², Kuven Moodley², Ludovico Minati³, Neil Burgess⁴, Tom Hartley⁵

¹Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, ²Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, ³U.O. Direzione Scientifica, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, ⁴Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, ⁵Department of Psychology, University of York

This article describes the 4 Mountains Test (4MT), a hippocampus-dependent test of working allocentric spatial memory. The hippocampus is affected early in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and this article outlines the 4MT methodology and results of patient testing, which demonstrates the value of the 4MT in the diagnosis of pre-dementia AD.

Genetics

An In Vitro Approach to Study Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Cybrid Model

Andrea Cavaliere^*1, Silvia Marchet^*1, Ivano Di Meo¹, Valeria Tiranti¹

¹Unit of Medical Genetics and Neurogenetics, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta

Transmitochondrial cybrids are hybrid cells obtained by fusing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-depleted cells (rho⁰ cells) with cytoplasts (enucleated cells) derived from patients affected by mitochondrial disorders. They allow the determination of the nuclear or mitochondrial origin of the disease, evaluation of biochemical activity, and confirmation of the pathogenetic role of mtDNA-related variants.