Postdoctoral fellow
Biography:
I’m originally from Portugal, but I’ve been living in Dublin since 2013. I began my academic course in Coimbra, where I did my undergrad in Biochemistry (University of Coimbra, Portugal). Regarding my interest in Biology and Neuroscience fields, I completed a master degree in Molecular and Cell Biology with specialization in Neuroscience. Then, in 2014 I started a PhD in Neuroscience entitled “P2Y receptor family as a novel drug target in epilepsy”, supervised by Dr Tobias Engel. Nowadays, I’m a post-doctoral researcher, working in Dr. Tobias Engel group.
Research Focus:
During my PhD, the main focus of my work was to characterize the class of receptors, the metabotropic purinergic P2Y receptors, in the setting of epilepsy.
By using experimental animal models of epilepsy and patient samples I characterized the expression of the different P2Y receptor subtypes following seizures and during epilepsy. Furthermore, I investigated the role of the P2Y1 receptor in acute and chronic epilepsy. The results suggest the P2Y1 receptor inhibition might be a good approach to the treatment of status epilepticus and prevention of seizure-induced brain damage.
The purinergic signalling is increasingly gaining significance as potential new treatment strategy for brain diseases. Currently, I’m still focussing on the investigation of the role of purinergic signalling receptors in epilepsy, however the ongoing projects are mainly focussed in determining the therapeutic impact of the ionotropic P2X7 receptor in epilepsy.
Publications:
Engel T, Gómez-Sintes R, Alves M, Jimenez-Mateos EM, Fernández-Nogales M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Morgan J, Beamer E, Rodríguez-Matellán A, Dunleavy M, Sano T, Avila J, Medina M, Hernandez F, Lucas JJ, Henshall DC. (2018). Bi-directional genetic modulation of GSK-3β exacerbates hippocampal neuropathology in experimental status epilepticus. Cell Death Dis. 20: 9(10):969. Link to paper here.
Alves M, Beamer E, Engel T. (2018). The Metabotropic Purinergic P2Y Receptor Family as Novel Drug Target in Epilepsy. Front Pharmacol. 9:193. Link to paper here.
Alves M, Gomez-Villafuertes R, Delanty N, Farrell MA, O’Brien DF, Miras-Portugal MT, Hernandez MD, Henshall DC, Engel T. (2018). Expression and function of the metabotropic purinergic P2Y receptor family in experimental seizure models and patients with drug-refractory epilepsy. Epilepsia. 58(9):1603-1614. Link to paper here.
Reynolds JP, Jimenez-Mateos EM, Cao L, Bian F, Alves M, Miller-Delaney SF, Zhou A, Henshall DC. (2017). Proteomic Analysis After Status Epilepticus Identifies UCHL1 as Protective Against Hippocampal Injury. Neurochem Res. doi: 10.1007/s11064-017-2260-6. Link to paper here.
Engel T, Martinez-Villarreal J, Henke C, Jimenez-Mateos EM, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Alves M, Hernandez-Santana Y, Brennan GP, Kenny A, Campbell A, Lucas JJ, Henshall DC. (2017). Spatiotemporal progression of ubiquitin-proteasome system inhibition after status epilepticus suggests protective adaptation against hippocampal injury. Mol Neurodegener. 24;12(1):21. Link to paper here.
Ichikawa N, Alves M, Pfeiffer S, Langa E, Hernández-Santana YE, Suzuki H, Prehn JH, Engel T, Henshall DC. (2017). Deletion of the BH3-only protein Noxa alters electrographic seizures but does not protect against hippocampal damage after status epilepticus in mice. Cell Death Dis. 12;8(1): e2556. Link to paper here.
Engel T, Brennan GP, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Alves M, Beamer E, Watters O, Henshall DC, Jimenez-Mateos EM. (2017). A calcium-sensitive feed-forward loop regulating the expression of the ATP-gated purinergic P2X7 receptor via specificity protein 1 and microRNA-22. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1864(2):255-266. Link to paper here.
Jimenez-Pacheco A, Diaz-Hernandez M, Arribas-Blázquez M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Olivos-Oré LA, Artalejo AR, Alves M, Letavic M, Miras-Portugal MT, Conroy RM, Delanty N, Farrell MA, O’Brien DF, Bhattacharya A, Engel T, Henshall DC. (2016). Transient P2X7 Receptor Antagonism Produces Lasting Reductions in Spontaneous Seizures and Gliosis in Experimental Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. J Neurosci. 36(22):5920-32. Link to paper here.
Engel T, Alves M, Sheedy C, Henshall DC. (2016). ATPergic signalling during seizures and epilepsy. Neuropharmacology. 104:140-53. Link to paper here.
D.Azenha, M.Alves, R.Matos, J.Fonte Santa, B.Silva, C.Cordeiro, D.Vieira, A.Ambrósio. 2009. Male specific association between the 5-HTR6 gene 267C/T SNP and suicide in the Portuguese population. Neuroscience Letters 466(3):128-30. Link to paper here.
Oral Communications:
Mariana Alves (2016). “The Purinergic P2Y Receptor Family as Novel Drug Target in Epilepsy”. Presented at the XV Summer “Teófilo Hernando’s” School of Pharmacology, Santander, Spain.
Poster presentations
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. The purinergic P2Y1 receptor as novel target to treat status epilepticus. Presented at BNA 2017: Festival of Neuroscience. Birmingham, UK. 10-13 April 2017.
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. The purinergic P2Y1 receptor as a new candidate for the treatment of status epilepticus and prevention of seizure-induced brain damage. Presented at Research day 2017 in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. P2Y Receptors: Expressional Changes Following Status Epilepticus and Epilepsy. Presented at 10th FENS Forum of Neuroscience, Copenhagen, Denmark. July 2-6, 2016.
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. P2Y Receptors: Expressional Changes Following Status Epilepticus and Epilepsy. Presented at Research day 2016 in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. Altered expression of p2y receptors following status epilepticus and chronic epilepsy in mice. Presented at 6th Joint German-Italian Purine Club Meeting, Hamburg, Germany. 23-25 July, 2015.
Alves M, Sanz-Rodriguez A, Langa E, Henshall DC, Engel T. Altered expression of p2y receptors following status epilepticus in mice. Presented at Research day 2015 in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Awards:
Poster Presentation: “The purinergic P2Y1 receptor as a new candidate for the treatment of status epilepticus and prevention of seizure-induced brain damage.”, at Research day 2017.
Innovation award at Research Day 2016.
Poster Presentation: “Altered expression of p2y receptors following status epilepticus in mice”, at Research day 2015.