Misfolded protein aggregation and altered cellular pathways in neurodegenerative diseases

• Main Authors: Huifang Li, Zhenghong Yu, Wei Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Innovation Publishing House Pte. Ltd. 2020-09-01
• Series: STEMedicine
• Subjects: Neurodegenerative diseases, misfolded protein aggregates, Unfolded protein response, Protein clearance pathways, Insulin/IGF/TOR
• Online Access: https://stemedicine.org/index.php/stem/article/view/63

Neurodegenerative diseases are estimated by the World Health Organization to be the second leading cause of human death by 2050. They actually are a group of chronic neurological disorders leading to motor, cognitive and sensory impairments in both human and nonhuman species. Despite different in clinical manifestation, prevalence, risk factors, cell types injured and genes hijacked, neurodegenerative disorders are usually associated with the misfolding and aggregation of a distinct protein that accumulates in diverse cellular locations including the nucleus, cytoplasm, plasma membrane and extracellular space. Here we intend to give an overview of the characters and features of several pathogenic protein aggregates in disease brains, and introduce some general signaling pathways involved in protein homeostasis with emphasis on their puzzling roles under the degenerative conditions.