Margarida Castro Caldas
PhD (2004) in Biology (Cell Biology), Universidade de Coimbra
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa — Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
Research Interests
Castro-Caldas is interested in the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. Work is now being conducted to identify and characterize neuroprotective agents/strategies in Parkinson’s disease. The main focus of our work is to evaluate redox state and mitochondrial function, cell death, neuroinflammation, post-translational modifications and motor function in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease.
Selected Publications
Rosa AI, Duarte-Silva S, Silva-Fernandes A, Nunes MJ, Carvalho AN, Rodrigues E, Maciel P, Castro-Caldas M. Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid Improves Motor Symptoms in a Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease. Mol Neurobiol 2018 doi.org/10.1007/s12035-018-1062-4 [Epub ahead of print]
Rosa AI, Fonseca I, Nunes MJ, Moreira S, Rodrigues E, Carvalho AN, Rodrigues CMP, Gama MJ, Castro-Caldas M. Novel insights into the antioxidant role of tauroursodeoxycholic acid in experimental models of Parkinson’s disease. Biochim Biophys Acta 2017; 1863: 2171-81.
Moreira S, Fonseca I, Nunes MJ, Rosa AI, Lemos L, Rodrigues E, Carvalho AN, Outeiro TF, Rodrigues CMP, Gama MJ, Castro-Caldas M. Nrf2 activation by tauroursodeoxycholic acid in experimental models of Parkinson’s disease. Exp Neurol 2017; 295: 77-87.
Fonseca I, Gordino G, Moreira S, Nunes MJ, Azevedo C, Gama MJ, Rodrigues E, Rodrigues CMP, Castro-Caldas M. Tauroursodeoxycholic acid protects against mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death via mitophagy in human neuroblastoma cells. Mol Neurobiol 2017; 54: 6107-19.
Carvalho AN, Marques C, Guedes RC, Castro-Caldas M, Rodrigues E, van Horssen J, Gama MJ. S-Glutathionylation of Keap1: a new role for glutathione S-transferase pi in neuronal protection. FEBS Letters 2016; 590: 1455-66.