Natural Inhibitors of Amyloid Aggregation
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Neurobiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2019) | Viewed by 34971
Special Issue Editors
Interests: polyglutamine proteins; amyloid diseases; antiamyloid compounds; nanobiotechnology; Caenorhabditis elegans
Interests: dementia; Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; neurodegeneration; protein aggregation; molecular chaperones; antibodies; protein therapeutics; protein design; biophysiscs
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The formation of fibrillar aggregates, called amyloids, of normally soluble proteins in the nervous system is a pathological event strongly linked with selective neuronal death. This mechanism underlies the onset and progression of several forms of dementia and motor neuron diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Amyloid aggregation is an extremely intricate process that involves several events and the formation of transient and highly toxic species, called oligomers. The intrinsic instability of oligomers represents a major challenge in the field, which has hindered the development of therapeutic strategies. Nevertheless, as a result of several recent advances, current drug discovery approches aimed at inhibiting amyloid aggregation and, specifically, the formation of oligomers are under development and show promising results. Many of these are based on the use of natural compounds such as metabolites and phenols, and also proteins such as antibodies and chaperones.
This Special Issue will cover updated research on the natural inhibitors of neurodegenerative amyloid aggregation, such as small molecules and antibodies. Its scope is multidisciplinary, hosting contributions based on biochemical, biophysical and computational approaches. It will encompass experimentations performed in vitro as well as in cellular and animal models, including those aimed at manipulating the protein homeostasis system.
Prof. Dr. Paolo Tortora
Dr. Francesco A. Aprile
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Neurodegeneration
- Protein aggregation
- Small molecules
- Peptides
- Protein therapeutics
- Antibodies
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