Water molecules and molecular chaperones efficiently help the protein folding process. Here we describe their action in the context of the energy and topological networks of proteins. In energy terms water and chaperones were suggested to decrease the activation energy between various local energy minima smoothing the energy landscape, rescuing misfolded proteins from conformational traps and s...

Parkinson's disease, like many other neurodegenerative disorders, is characterized by the progressive accumulation of pathogenic protein species and the formation of intracellular inclusion bodies. The cascade by which the small synaptic protein α-synuclein misfolds to form distinctive protein aggregates, termed Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, has been the subject of intensive research for more ...

The network of molecular chaperones mediates the folding and translocation of the many proteins encoded in the genome of eukaryotic organisms, as well as a response to stress. It has been particularly well characterised in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, where 63 known chaperones have been annotated and recent affinity purification and MS/MS experiments have helped characterise the...

Molecular chaperones facilitate and regulate protein conformational change within cells. This encompasses many fundamental cellular processes: including the correct folding of nascent chains; protein transport and translocation; signal transduction and protein quality control. Chaperones are, therefore, important in several forms of human disease, including neurodegeneration. Within the retina,...

In the present study, monocytes were treated with 5-azacytidine (azacytidine), gossypol or hydrogen peroxide to induce cell death through oxidative stress. A shift from apoptotic to necrotic cell death occurred when monocytes were treated with 100 µM azacytidine for more than 12 hours. Necrotic monocytes exhibited characteristics, including enrichment of cell-bound albumin and up-regulation of ...