Sanders-Brown Faculty
CONTACT INFORMATION
Room 311, Sanders-Brown Center On Aging
800 South Limestone Street
Lexington, KY 40536-0230
E-MAIL:
pnels2@email.uky.edu
PHONE: (859) 257-1412 x254
FAX: (859) 323-2866
For a Powerpoint presentation by Dr. Nelson about exciting new ideas in RNA neurobiology, given for the Alzheimer Research Forum, click the following link.
Peter T. Nelson, M.D.,Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Departmental Affiliation(s):
Pathology, Division of Neuropathology
Research Focus:
Non-coding RNA in neurodegenerative disease
In the lab:
Dr. Wang-Xia Wang
Dr. Bernard R. Wilfred
Ms. Willa Huang
James Dimayuga
Mary Jennings
Kevin Xie

Kevin and Mary - students in the lab

Work on RNA biology may help point toward strategies to 'un-tangle' the biological questions of Alzheimer's disease, such as why neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles develop in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. (lower left figure shows a low-power photomicrograph depicting miRNA in situ hybridization from human hippocampus; and, at lower right, a medium-power photomicrograph shows human brain stained with a silver impregnation technique to highlight the abnormal and unhealthy-appearing brain microenvironment).
Research Interests:
Dr. Nelson is an experimental neuropathologist whose research focuses upon the molecular neurochemistry of the human brain —in health and in neurodegenerative disease —particularly in the context of RNA biology. The study of small regulatory RNAs is a relatively new and unexplored research field with much potential. Dr. Nelson's work has focused upon the predominant small regulatory RNA subtype in humans (and in all animals), which are termed microRNAs (miRNAs). MiRNAs subserve fundamental biological functions in all animals studied. He invented new techniques to analyze and manipulate these small molecules, and studies how miRNA biology is altered in neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Nelson seeks both to understand how miRNAs contribute to disease pathogenesis, and to explore how specially-designed RNAs may be applied for therapeutic strategies.
Recent Publications:
Nelson PT,
Jicha GA, Kryscio RJ, Abner EL, Schmitt FA, Cooper, G, Xu, LO, Smith CD,
Patel E, Markesbery WR. Low sensitivity in clinical diagnoses of
dementia with Lewy bodies. J. Neurology, In Press.
Nelson PT,
Schmitt FA, Jicha GA, Kryscio RJ, Abner EL, Cooper, G, Xu, LO, Smith CD,
Patel E, Markesbery WR. Relative preservation of MMSE scores in
autopsy-proven dementia with Lewy bodies. Neurology, In Press.
Berger JR, Fee DB, Nelson P, Nuovo G.
Coxsackie B meningoencephalitis in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome and a multiple sclerosis-like illness. J Neurovirol.
2009 May 14:1-6.
Berger JR, Dillon DA, Young BA, Goldstein SJ, Nelson P.
Cystinosis of the brain and spinal cord with associated vasculopathy.
J Neurol Sci. 2009 Sep 15;284(1-2):182-5.
Nelson PT,
Abner EL, Schmitt FA, Kryscio RJ, Jicha GA, Santacruz
K, Smith CD, Patel E, Markesbery WR. Brains With Medial Temporal Lobe
Neurofibrillary Tangles But No Neuritic Amyloid Plaques Are a Diagnostic
Dilemma But May Have Pathogenetic Aspects Distinct From Alzheimer Disease.
J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2009 [In press]
Nelson PT,
Wilfred BR. In situ hybridization is a necessary
experimental complement to microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling in the
human brain. Neurosci Lett. 2009 Apr
23. [In press]
Nelson PT,
Kryscio RJ, Abner EL, Schmitt FA, Jicha GA, Mendiondo
MS, Cooper G, Smith CB, Markesbery WR. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor
treatment is associated with relatively slow cognitive decline in patients
with Alzheimer's disease and AD + DLB. J Alzheimers Dis. 2009
Jan;16(1):29-34.
Nelson PT,
Braak H, Markesbery WR.
Neuropathology and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer disease: a complex
but coherent relationship. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2009
Jan;68(1):1-14.
Jicha GA, Schmitt FA, Abner E,
Nelson PT, Cooper GE, Smith CD, Markesbery WR. Prodromal clinical
manifestations of neuropathologically confirmed Lewy body disease.
Neurobiol Aging. 2008 Nov 19.
Nelson PT,
Abner, EA, Scheff, SW, Schmitt, FA, Kryscio, RJ, Jicha, GA, Smith, CD,
Patel, E, Markesbery, WR, Alzheimer pathology in the precuneus is not
increased relative to other areas of neocortex across a range of cognitive
impairment. Neurosci Letters (In Press).
Nelson PT,
Abner, EA, Schmitt, FA, Kryscio, RJ, Jicha, GA, Smith, CD, Davis, DG,
Poduska, JW, Patel, E, Mendiondo, MS, Markesbery, WR, Modeling the
association between 43 different clinical and pathological variables and the
severity of cognitive impairment in a large autopsy cohort of elderly
persons, Brain Pathol, (In Press).
Jicha, GA, Schmitt, FA, Abner, EL, Nelson, PT,
Cooper, GE, Smith, CD, and Markesbery, WR, Prodromal clinical manifestations
of neuropathologically confirmed Lewy body disease. Neurobiol Aging,
2008 (In Press)
Nelson PT,
Smith, CD, Abner, EA, Schmitt, FA, Scheff, SW, Davis, GD, Keller, JN, Jicha,
GA, Davis, D, Wang, W-X, Hartman, A, Katz, DG, and Markesbery WR, Human
cerebral neuropathology of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. BBA-Mol Basis
of Disease, 2008 (In Press)
Nelson PT*,
Wang WX, Wilfred BR, Tang G. Technical variables in high-throughput
miRNA expression profiling: Much work remains to be done. Biochim
Biophys Acta. 2008 Apr 7.
Cuellar TL, Davis TH, Nelson PT, Loeb GB, Harfe BD,
Ullian E, McManus MT. Dicer loss in striatal neurons produces
behavioral and neuroanatomical phenotypes in the absence of
neurodegeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr
8;105(14):5614-9.
Wang WX, Wilfred BR, Baldwin DA, Isett RB, Ren N,
Stromberg A, Nelson PT. Focus on RNA isolation: Obtaining RNA
for microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling analyses of neural tissue.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2008 Feb 13.
Wang, W-X, Nelson PT, and Tang, G, RNA interference
and miRNA pathways: mechanisms and protein machinery. Wiley
Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology. 2008
Nelson PT,
Wang, W-X, and Rajeev, BW. MicroRNAs in neurodegeneration.
Brain Pathology 2008 18(1): 130-8.
Nelson PT,
Jicha, GA, Schmitt, FA, Liue, H, Davis, DG, Mendiondo,
MS, Abner, EL, and Markesbery, WR, Clinicopathological correlations in a
large Alzheimer Disease Center autopsy cohort: neuritic plaques and
neurofibrillary tangles "do count" when staging disease severity. J
Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2007 Dec; 66(12): 1136-1146.
Nelson PT,
De Planell-Saguer M, Lamprinaki S, Kiriakidou M, Zhang P, O'Doherty U,
Mourelatos Z. A novel monoclonal antibody against human Argonaute proteins
reveals unexpected characteristics of miRNAs in human blood cells. RNA.
2007 Oct;13(10):1787-92.
Nelson PT,
Keller JN. RNA in brain disease: no longer just "the messenger in the
middle". J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2007 Jun;66(6):461-8.
Kiriakidou M, Tan GS, Lamprinaki S, De Planell-Saguer M,
Nelson PT, Mourelatos Z. An mRNA m7G cap binding-like motif within
human Ago2 represses translation. Cell. 2007 Jun 15;129(6):1141-51.
Wilfred BR, Wang WX, Nelson PT. Energizing
miRNA research: a review of the role of miRNAs in lipid metabolism, with a
prediction that miR-103/107 regulates human metabolic pathways. Mol
Genet Metab. 2007 Jul;91(3):209-17.
Nelson PT,
Zhang PJ, Spagnoli GC, Tomaszewski JE, Pasha TL,
Frosina D, Caballero OL, Simpson AJ, Old LJ, Jungbluth AA.
Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are expressed in fetal ovary. Cancer
Immun. 2007 Jan 12;7:1.
