Marta Campagnolo

Phone: 049/8216396
Email: marta.camagnolo@unipd.it
Address: Department of Neuroscience
Via Nicolò Giustinani 5, Padova 35128

The main focus of my research has been on the identification of possible biomarkers for the early diagnosis of neurological conditions involving both the central and peripheral nervous system, such as hereditary and wild type transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR and wtATTR, respectively) and alpha-synucleinopathies, namely Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). The common ground among these disorders is the deposition of misfolded proteins in different tissues and organs (i.e. transthyretin in the peripheral nerve or the heart for hATTR) or in different regions of the central nervous system (a-synuclein in PD and MSA). To this end, I explored the possible application of skin biopsy to analyze the characteristics and patterns of deposition of transthyretin and a-synuclein, together with its possible role in the diagnosis of conditions involving the peripheral nervous system (i.e. small fiber neuropathy). Moreover, I focused on the role of autonomic testing in the management of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies. Namely, I analyzed the possible relationship between the occurrence and severity of symptoms of orthostatic hypotension and clinical data, together with blood pressure and heart rate variability data obtained from autonomic testing.