17th International Symposium on Cholinergic Mechanisms

May 08-12, 2022
Mlini – Dubrovnik, Croatia

Plenary Lectures

EMBO Keynote Lecture – Hermona Soreq (Jerusalem, Israel): Small RNA Regulators of Cholinergic Pathway Genes Exert Sex and Disease-Related Neuroinflammation and Mental Changes
HDBMB Plenary Lecture – Palmer Taylor (La Jolla, California, USA): Molecular Recognition in the Cholinergic Nervous System
Thomas Balle (Sydney, Australia): A Dynamic View on α4β2 nAChR Agonist and Modulator Binding
Marco Prado (London, Ontario, Canada): Regulation of Cholinergic Tone, Cognition and Alzheimer’s Pathology by the Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter (VAChT)
Kevin J. Tracey (Manhasset, USA): Famotidine Activates the Vagus Nerve Inflammatory Reflex to Attenuate Cytokine Storm

Invited Speakers

Niko Amend (Munich, Germany): Biomedical treatment of organophosphate poisoning
Michael Aschner (New York, USA): Metals-induced cholinergic dysfunction and neurodegenerative disorders
Maria Laura Bolognesi (Bologna, Italy): Sustainable Drug Discovery of Multi-Target-Directed Ligands for Alzheimer’s Disease
Anita Bosak (Zagreb, Croatia) Evaluation of 4-aminoquinolines as potential anticholinesterase agents in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
Jean-Pierre Changeux (Paris, France): From Nicotinic Receptor structure to Cognition and Covid19
A Claudio Cuello (Montreal, Quebec, Canada & Oxford, UK) The impact of a novel NGF metabolic pathway on the forebrain cholinergic system in health and in the Alzheimer’s pathology
John Dani (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA): Adolescent Nicotine Enhances Adult Alcohol Self-administration
Ezio Giacobini (Geneva, Switzerland): Rethinking Cholinergic Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease
Fredrik Ekström (Umea, Sweden): On in situ Assembly of Choline Acetyltransferase Ligands
Abraham Fisher (Rehovot, Israel): Muscarinic stimulation of post-synaptic receptors for the potential treatment and prevention of cognitive decline
Maria Grazia Giovannini (Firenze, Italy): More than the cholinergic system: the evolving role of glia in memory, aging, and neurodegeneration
Ryan Hibbs (Dallas, Texas, USA): Structural insights into nicotinic receptor pharmacology, permeation and gating
Carrie K. Jones (Nashville, Tennessee, USA): Development of M5 NAM and orthosteric inhibitors for opioid use disorder
Svjetlana Kalanj Bognar (Zagreb, Croatia): Cell adhesion glycoprotein neuroplastin in human cognition and neurodegeneration
Zrinka Kovarik (Zagreb, Croatia): Assessment of Four Organophosphorus Pesticides as Inhibitors of Human Cholinesterases
Eric Krejci (Paris, France): Acetylcholine toxicities: Surprising lessons from mouse genetics
Claire Legay (Paris, France): Deciphering ColQ modes of action at the neuromuscular junction
Sebastian Lobentanzer (Heidelberg, Germany): Multi-cholinergic omics with prior knowledge to enable causal molecular reasoning
Frank Longo (Stanford, California, USA): LM11A-31 Small Molecule p75 Receptor Modulator –Analysis of Safety and Exploratory Endpoints in a Phase 2A Trial in Alzheimer’s Disease
Lin Mei (Cleveland, Ohio, USA): Novel mechanisms of neuromuscular junction assembly and disorders revealed by revisiting the classic adapter protein rapsyn
Nikolina Maček Hrvat (Zagreb, Croatia): Neuroprotection analysed with acetylcholinesterase reactivators
Pascale Marchot (Marseille, France): Molecular bases for partnership of the C. elegans ChE-like adhesion molecule, neuroligin-1, with punctin
J. Michael McIntosh (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA): Alpha 10–Containing Nicotinic Receptors- Implications for Neuropathic Pain, Cancer and Inflammation
Andreas Meisel (Berlin, Germany): Role of cholinergic pathways in the pathobiology of stroke
Cesare Montecucco (Padua, Italy): Inhibition of the binding of tetanus neurotoxin to peripheral cholinergic nerve terminals by human monoclonal antibodies: prophylaxis and therapy of tetanus
Dirk Montag (Magdeburg, Germany): Alzheimer’s disease delaying acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and a potential connection to neuroplastin-PMCA
Kamil Musilek (Hradec Kralove, Czechia): Modification of oxime nucleophiles for enhanced reactivation of cholinesterases
Melissa Murray (Jacksonville, Florida, USA): Paradoxical Aging in Alzheimer’s disease: A Clinicopathologic Perspective of Nucleus Basalis of Meynert
Florian Nachon (Brétigny sur Orge, France): Design and evaluation of novel reactivators of cholinesterases inhibited by nerve agents
Agneta Nordberg (Stockholm, Sweden): The role of alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in Alzheimer´s disease pathology and other proteinopathies
Kinji Ohno (Nagoya, Japan): Three newly identified molecules that facilitate the formation of neuromuscular junction
Baldomero M. Olivera (Utah, USA): New nicotinic receptor subtypes expressed in sensory ganglia
Edna F. Pereira (Baltimore, Maryland, USA): Organophosphorus insecticides and the developing brain: Detrimental effects of early-life exposures
Sergej Pirkmajer (Ljubljana, Slovenia): Agrin signalling in human skeletal muscle cells
Ines Primožič (Zagreb, Croatia): Modulating cholinesterases activity by quinuclidine and cinchona-based compounds
Konstantinos Poulas (Patras, Greece) COVID-19 and the nicotinic cholinergic pathway
Zoran Radić (La Jolla, California, USA): Insights into functionally relevant conformational flexibility of protein backbones in cholinesterase structures
Yvonne Rosenberg (Washington, USA): Development of Pre- and Post-Countermeasures against OP Toxins in Macaques
Terrone L. Rosenberry (Jacksonville, Florida, USA): Out-of-register parallel β-sheets and antiparallel β-sheets coexist in 150-kDa oligomers formed by amyloid-β (1–42)
Jane Rylett (London, Ontario, Canada): Impact of expression of 82-kDa ChAT on Alzheimer pathology in a mouse model
Taylor Schmitz (London, Ontario, Canada): Age-Dependent Effects of the p75 Modulator LM11A-31 on Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers in a Six-Month Safety and Exploratory Endpoint Trial
Jonathan Sussman (Manchester, UK): Phenotype and Genotype Variation in Myasthenia Gravis
Tzviya Zeev-Ben-Mordehai (Utrecht, The Netherlands): Cryo-electron microscopy of cholinesterases
Tamara Zorbaz (Jerusalem, Israel; Zagreb, Croatia): Cholinergic and neurodevelopmental links in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Selected Speakers

Marco Stazi (Padua, Italy): Functional Recovery of the Neuromuscular Junction from Neurotoxic Snake Envenoming Elicited by CXCR4 Agonist
Wen-Cheng Xiong (Cleveland, Ohio, USA): Muscular Swedish Mutant APP-to-Brain Axis in the Development of Alzheimer’s Disease
Federico Fabris (Padua, Italy): Unravelling the Inhibitory Activity of Botulinum Toxins on the Enteric Nervous System
Anna Hrabovska (Bratislava, Slovakia): Cardiac Nicotinic Receptors Show -Subunit-Dependent Compensatory Changes
Ali Kusay (Sydney, Australia): Molecular Dynamics Insight into Modulator Binding at the α4α4 Binding Site of the α4β2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Muslum Gok (Mugla, Turkey): A Novel Look on the Catalytic Activity of Butyrylcholinesterase using Unusual Substrates: Saturated and Unsaturated 18C Fatty Acid
Selena Maxwell (Halifax, Canada): The Cholinergic System as a Potential Mechanism of Cognitive Preservation in Octogenarians and Older