Valentina Murtaj

Valentina Murtaj

CURRICULUM

Nata in Croazia il 15 giugno 1990, ho conseguito la laurea triennale in “Biologia e Tecnologie molecolari e cellulari” nel 2013 e poi in “Neuroscienze”, un corso magistrale internazionale, nel 2015 presso l’Università degli Studi di Trieste. Ho completato la mia formazione post-lauream presso il laboratorio PET Preclinico all’Ospedale San Raffaele di Milano, sotto la supervisione della Prof.ssa Moresco dell’Università di Milano Bicocca, dove dopo aver vinto una borsa di studio e un assegno di ricerca, mi sono iscritta al primo anno di Dottorato in Neuroscienze all’Università di Milano Bicocca.
Durante il periodo post-lauream ho completato il lavoro fatto durante il periodo di tesi, studiando potenziali radio-traccianti applicati allo studio della neuro-infiammazione in diversi modelli animali di patologie neurodegenerative come la Sclerosi Multipla, il Morbo di Parkinson e il Morbo di Alzheimer concentrandomi in particolar modo sulle cellule microgliali. Attualmente mi occupo di studiare i meccanismi infiammatori di nuovi bio-marcatori a livello cerebrale in modelli di anzianità e potenziali differenze di genere.

PROGETTO DI RICERCA

Gender, age and metabolic dysfunction as risk factor for neuro-inflammatory pathology disease

  • Curriculum: Neuroscienze Sperimentali
  • Tutor: Rosa Maria Moresco

Aged and demented population represent the highly relevance for delirium appearance. Neuro-inflammation, involved in aging is one of the most supported by the literature. Microglial cells are activated by local and systemic inflammation and become primed (hyper-responsive) to small stimuli with aging, which can potentially cause damage and neuronal death. When an acute inflammatory stimulation occurs peripherally in a vulnerable individual, microglial cells become over activated and inflammatory mediators overexpressed in the CNS. Pro-inflammatory neurotoxins such as bacterial LPS strongly down-regulate TREM2 and the ability to microglial cells to phagocytose extracellular debris. The TREM and TREM-like receptor are expressed by a variety of innate cells of myeloid lineage including macrophages and microglia. There are also several risk factor than aging that could facilitate neurodegeneration development, including gender, lifestyle and presence of genetic polymorphism. Obese state is associated with chronic-low grade inflammation in which exposure  to free fatty acids initiates inflammatory signalling leading to immune cell infiltration contributing to inflammation state.

Aim of my project will be the evaluation of the effect of inflammation in sex and gender-related during aging and metabolic dysfunction in animal model and to better understand the role of TREM2 and TSPO as risk factor for inflammation and microglia activation, using PET imaging and molecular and cellular techniques.

PUBBLICAZIONI E PARTECIPAZIONI A CONGRESSI RECENTI

Pubblicazioni

  • Sara Belloli; Lucia Zanotti; Valentina Murtaj; Cristina Mazzon; Giuseppe Di Grigoli; Cristina Monterisi; Valeria Masiello; Leonardo Iaccarino; Andrea Cappelli; Pietro Luigi Poliani; Letterio Salvatore Politi; Rosa Maria Moresco “18F-VC701-PET and MRI in the in vivo neuroinflammation assessment of a mouse model of Multiple Sclerosis” . J Neuroinflammation,  2018 Feb 5;15(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12974-017-1044-x.
  • Carpinelli A, Rainone P, Belloli S, Reale A, Cappelli A, Germano G, Murtaj V, Coliva A, Di Grigoli G, Valeri A, Gilardi MC, Gianolli L, Anzini M, Moresco RM. “Radiosynthesis and Preclinical Evaluation of (11)C-VA426, a Cyclooxygenase-2 Selective Ligand.” Contrast Media Mol Imaging. 2019 Sep 24;2019:5823261. doi: 10.1155/2019/5823261. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31598112; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6778861.
  • Murtaj V, Belloli S, Di Grigoli G, Pannese M, Ballarini E, Rodriguez-Menendez  V, Marmiroli P, Cappelli A, Masiello V, Monterisi C, Bellelli G, Panina-Bordignon P, Moresco RM. “Age and Sex Influence the Neuro-inflammatory Response to a Peripheral Acute LPS Challenge.”Front Aging Neurosci. 2019 Nov 5;11:299. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2019.00299. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31749696; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6848890.
  • Belloli S, Morari M, Murtaj V, Valtorta S, Moresco RM and Gilardi MC. Translation imaging in Parkinson’s disease: focus on neuroinflammation. Front. Aging Neurosci. Review article. 2020 June 5 doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.00152
  • Besusso D, Schellino R, Boido M, Belloli S, Parolisi R, Conforti P, Faedo A, Cernigoj M, Campus I, Laporta A, Bocchi VD, Murtaj V, Parmar M, Spaiardi P, Talpo F, Maniezzi C, Toselli MG, Biella G, Moresco RM, Vercelli A, Buffo A, Cattaneo E. Stem Cell-Derived Human Striatal Progenitors Innervate Striatal Targets and Alleviate Sensorimotor Deficit in a Rat Model of Huntington Disease. Stem Cell Reports. 2020 Apr 8. pii: S2213-6711(20)30108-9. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.03.018. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32302555.

Congressi

  • Murtaj Valentina, Belloli Sara, Chiaffarelli Remy, Chaabane Linda, Canu Tamara, Marra Paolo, Esposito Antonio, Masiello Valeria, Coliva Angela, Malosio Maria Luisa and Moresco Rosa Maria”Metabolic dysfunction as risk factor for neuroinflammatory pathology disease” BraYn Conference (2°st brainstorming research assembly for young neuroscientist) 14-16 November 2019, Milan, Italy
  • Valentina Murtaj, S. Belloli, R. Schellino, M. Boido, C. Monterisi, C. Masiello, A. Vercelli, R. Moresco “Effect of the immune system on microglia activation and strategy to control neuroinflammation using innovative pharmacological treatment” NeuroMi 21-23 November 2018, Milan, Italy
  • Valentina Murtaj, S. Belloli, M. Vuozzo, S. Penati, M. Matteoli, V. Masiello, C. Monterisi, M., Malosio, R. Moresco “Metabolic dysfunction as risk factor for neurinflammatory pathology Disease” NeuroMi 21-23 November 2018, Milan, Italy
  • Murtaj Valentina, Belloli Sara, Pannese Maria, Monterisi Cristina, Masiello Valeria, Gianolli Luigi, Panina-Bordignon Paola and Rosa Maria Moresco “Monitoring Neuroinflammation with the TSPO tracer [18F]VC701, after LPS systemic administration in male/female adult and aged mice” BraYn Conference (1°st brainstorming research assembly for young neuroscientist), 28-29 June 2018, Genova, Italy 
  • Di Grigoli Giuseppe, Sara Belloli, Murtaj Valetina, Cristina Monterisi, Masiello Valeria and Rosa Maria Moresco “Monitoring Neuroinflammation with the TSPO tracer [18F]VC701, after LPS systemic administration in adult and aged mice” NeuroMi , Milan, Italy 6-8 July 2016-POSTER
  • Sara Belloli, Maria Pannese, Raccagni Isabella, Di Grigoli Giuseppe, Murtaj Valentina, Assunta Carpinelli, Cristina Monterisi, Paola Panina-Bordignon and Rosa Maria Moresco “Molecular imaging of Microglia activation in response to acute neurodegeneration damage in TREM2 deficient mice” NeuroMi, Milan, Italy 6-8 July 2016-POSTER
  • Sara Belloli, Murtaj Valentina, Maria Pannese, Cristina Monterisi, Valeria Masiello, Paola Panina-Bordignon and Rosa Maria Moresco “Age and gender effect on the neuro-inflammatory respoce to a peripheral LPS inhection” San Raffaele Hospital Scientific Retreat, Baveno, Italy 10-12 March 2017-POSTER
  • Murtaj Valentina, Sara Belloli, Maria Pannese, Cristina Monterisi, Valeria Masiello, Paola Panina-Bordignon e Rosa Maria Moresco “Validation of neuro-inflammation through TSPO imaging using [18F]VC701 as radiotracer: sex and gender effect in a mouse model” 4° National Congress on Gender Medicine Padova, Italy, 27-28 November 2017-POSTER

ALTRE INFO

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Elisabetta Donzelli
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