6^thInternational Conference on
Neurodegenerative Disorders & Stroke

Ibrahim Bukenya is the Principal Physiotherapist of Stroke Foundation Uganda (SFU) ages 36 years. Stroke Foundation Uganda is in partnership with Stroke Rehabilitation Centre. We offer physiotherapy, Occupational therapy, Speech and Language therapy, Counseling, Nutrition and Follow-up assessment.

There are a number of methods stroke is diagnosed. One is through a brain computed tomography (MRI) scan (brain CT scan) which can show bleeding in the brain or damage to the brain cells from a stroke. The test also can show other brain conditions that may be causing the symptoms. One can also use Medical history where the Doctor will ask you or a family member about your risk factors include high blood pressure,diabetes,heart disease and a personal or family history about stroke. Your Doctor also will ask about the signs and symptoms when they began. Diagnosis can also be done through physical examination, your doctor will check your mental alertness and your co-ordination and balance, he or she will check for numbness in your face, arms, legs, confusion, and trouble speaking and seeing clearly. Awareness of stroke can be made through the media such as TV show, radio programs, Facebook, whatsapp, internet, YouTube; Instagram. Results may either be positive or negative. If positive the client is referred for rehabilitation and If negative further tests and scans can be done to identify the case. Diagnosis and stroke awareness has greatly helped to prevent or control stroke.

Prof. Dr. Miroslav Pohanka graduated from chemistry in Masaryk University Brno (Czech Republic) in 2003. In the Masaryk University, he achieved doctor of natural science (RNDr) from biochemistry in 2006 and PhD from biochemistry in 2008. After that, he achieved associated professor (from toxicology at University of Defense, Czech Republic (2012) and doctor of sciences from analytical chemistry at Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (2014) and professor from analytical chemistry at University of Pardubice (2016). He is an author of more than 200 papers in journals with IF and his works were more than 2000 times cited according web of science.

Celecoxib is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug which was introduced in the 1990s. It is known as an inhibitor of enzyme cyclooxygenase-2. The drug was introduced in 1990s. In the work presented here, affinity of celecoxib to enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is inferred because of structural motives in the celecoxib that make it resembling some inhibitors of AChE. Practical impact of properties coming from pertinent inhibition of AChE are proposed. . Inhibition of human AChE by celecoxib was tested using standard spectrophotometric method and Dixon plot for inhibition constants calculation. Interaction between AChE and celecoxib was also predicted by molecular docking using Swiss dock software. A non-competitive mechanism of inhibition was revealed and equilibrium inhibitory constant equal to 313±40 µmol/l was determined. Comparing to AChE, inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase by celecoxib was not found. The lowest G for complex celecoxib-AChE was equal to -7.78 kcal/mol. In this case, sulfonamide moiety of celecoxib was stacked between TYR 337 and TYR 341 of alfa anionic subsite of active site in the AChE. Cation-Π interactions appears to be responsible for the binding of celecoxib in the active site of AChE. Though the here revealed and characterized inhibition has lower effect in real conditions than inhibition of cyclooxygenase. The finding is relevant for therapy of neurodegenerative disorders and some other specific pathologies. The inhibition of AChE by celecoxib can be utilized in the therapy of degenerative disorders like Alzheimer disease or it can be used as a prophylactic for poisoning by nerve agents. This work was supported by a Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic - long-term organization development plan Medical Aspects of Weapons of Mass Destruction of the Faculty of Military Health Sciences, University of Defence.

Aims: According to an estimation of WHO by 2030 after every 33 seconds one will be diagnosed with AD (Alzheimer’s Disorder) which will lead to develop 1 million new cases per year [1]. Currently there is no treatment strategy which can reverse the process of neuro-degeneration. Consequently, achieving and maintaining high therapeutic doses in clinical practices is difficult due to selective permeability of blood brain barrier (BBB). It is therefore necessary to develop safe and effective approach, which can deliver bio-actives to brain for the effective treatment of several difficult to treat brain disorders. Objective: The purpose of the present study is to develop and characterize polyamidoamine (PAMAM)-lactoferrin (PAMAM-Lf) conjugates for the effective delivery of anti-Alzheimer’s drug to brain across BBB. Methodology: Lactoferrin (Lf) was chemically conjugated to (PAMAM) dendrimers. Conjugation was confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 2D-NMR spectroscopy and AFM techniques. Further, rivastigmine (RIV) was physically encapsulated to PAMAM (PAMAM-RIV) and PAMAM-Lf (PAMAM-Lf-RIV) conjugates. HPLC was used to quantify the drug loading and in vitro release was performed at physiological pH conditions. Brain targeting was also evaluated in animal model with additional behavioral studies. Results and Discussion: Spectroscopic analysis confirmed the PAMAM-Lf conjugation, size of the conjugate was 100±3.1 nm after RIV loading and the size was increased up to 216±8.3 nm. AFM results showed the root mean square roughness (Rq) and surface roughness (Ra) are 6.31 and 5.27 nm, respectively. In vitro drug release from PAMAM-Lf-RIV conjugate was observed to be sustained and was evaluated for 100 h. Ex-vivo hemotoxicity of RIV loaded PAMAM-Lf conjugate was almost 9.8 fold lesser than the PAMAM dendrimer, 7.77 times lesser than PAMAM-RIV and 7.66 folds in comparison to naïve RIV. Bioavailability of the RIV was enhanced 7.63 folds compared to pure drug with other improved pharmacokinetic parameters. Exceptionally, the locomotor and object recognition behavior of the animals were also far improved over the naïve RIV and PAMAM-RIV which was a novel and significant change to address through this study. Conclusion: PAMAM-Lf conjugate was developed to attain higher drug loading and effective delivery of RIV to brain. The obtained results were surprisingly in the area where very few studies with dendrimers are reported yet and it was observed that the behavioral response was improved with the delivery of RIV to brain using dendrimers. The developed dendrimeric system could be effective in brain delivery

Background: Early identification and referring for adequate treatments of aphasia is essential as it may cause for limitations in daily life and functional communication. But there are no currently available standardized aphasia screening tests in Sri Lankan Sinhala speaking context. The dissertation mainly focused on adapting Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test (FAST) for patients with poststroke aphasia in the Sri Lankan Sinhala speaking context. Materials and method: The descriptive cross-sectional study design was implemented for adapting FAST into Sri Lankan Sinhala speaking context. A purposive sampling of 90 non- impaired people and 35 aphasia patients from government hospital speech and language therapy clinic settings in the western province enlisted for the study. Study instruments were the self-administrative questionnaire for adapting and translating the tasks and interviewer administrative adapted screening tool. Results: There was a significant negative correlation between age and total scores in non- impaired population (A Spearman's rank-order coefficient [r s ] = -.701, p< .001) and a high degree of inter-rater reliability of the adapted screening test was found (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]= 1.000, p<.001). Conclusion: The newly adapted Sinhala version of FAST is a reliable and sensitive screening tool for aphasia detecting in Sri Laankan Sinhala speaking context. The elicited cut values are 28 (age 20-60), 19 (age 61-70), 14 (above 71) for each age group.