Protein aggregation and amyloid fibril deposits are characteristic features of more than twenty pathologic conditions characterized by plaque deposition in the central nervous system. Recent studies point out relationships between protein misfolding and numerous serious diseases. Despite different origins (sporadic, familial or transmissible), they are sometimes called conformational diseases t...

Caseinolytic proteases are large oligomeric assemblies responsible for maintaining protein homeostasis in bacteria and in so doing influence a wide range of biological processes. The functional assembly involves three chaperones together with the oligomeric caseinolytic protease catalytic subunit P (ClpP). This protease represents a potential target for therapeutic intervention in pathogenic ba...

Amyloidogenic neurodegenerative diseases are incurable conditions with high social impact that are typically caused by specific, largely disordered proteins. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive to established techniques. A favored hypothesis postulates that a critical conformational change in the monomer (an ideal therapeutic target) in these "neurotoxic proteins" trigge...

Conformational diseases are caused by the aggregation of misfolded proteins. The risk for such pathologies develops years before clinical symptoms appear, and is higher in people with alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) polymorphisms. Thousands deficiency (AATD) underdiagnosed. Enemy-aggregating proteins may reside these underdiagnosed AATD patients many a pathology fully develops. In this perspective re...

Age-related, diet-related and protein conformational diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, cancer, hypercholesterolemia, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases are common in the elderly population. The potential of chitosan, chitooligosaccharides and their derivatives in prevention and treatment of age-related dysfunctions is reviewed and discussed in this paper. The infl...

Errors in protein folding may result in premature clearance of structurally aberrant proteins, or in the accumulation of toxic misfolded species or protein aggregates. These pathological events lead to a large range of conditions known as conformational diseases. Several research groups have presented possible therapeutic solutions for their treatment by developing novel compounds, known as pha...

neuroserpin, a member of the serine proteinase inhibitor (serpin) superfamily, is known to be a neuroprotective factor in the focal ischemic stroke followed by reducing the microglial activation. neuroserpin is a protein rich of methionine residues that can scavenge the free radical species which may increase its neuroprotective effect. on the other hand, the oxidative modifications of the amin...

introduction: congenital long qt syndrome (lqts) is a cardiac disorder characterized by qt interval prolongation at basal ecg. different lqts genes encode ion channel subunits or proteins involved in regulating cardiac ionic currents. long qt syndrome type 6 (lqt6) is caused by mutation in the kcne2 gene. our research aimed to analyze genetic variants of kcne2 gene causing the disease in irania...