α-Synuclein misfolding and aggregation: Implications in Parkinson's disease pathogenesis
Autor: | Samir K. Maji, Shruti Sahay, Surabhi Mehra |
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Rok vydání: | 2018 |
Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Protein Folding Parkinson's disease Amyloid animal diseases Biophysics Protein aggregation Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Pathogenesis 03 medical and health sciences Protein Aggregates Structure-Activity Relationship 0302 clinical medicine medicine Neurites Humans Point Mutation Molecular Biology Synucleinopathies Chemistry Mechanism (biology) Point mutation Parkinson Disease medicine.disease Phenotype nervous system diseases Intrinsically Disordered Proteins 030104 developmental biology nervous system alpha-Synuclein Lewy Bodies Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
Zdroj: | Biochimica et biophysica acta. Proteins and proteomics. 1867(10) |
ISSN: | 1878-1454 |
Popis: | α-Synuclein (α-Syn) has been extensively studied for its structural and biophysical properties owing to its pathophysiological role in Parkinson's disease (PD). Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites are the pathological hallmarks of PD and contain α-Syn aggregates as their major component. It was therefore hypothesized that α-Syn aggregation is actively associated with PD pathogenesis. The central role of α-Syn aggregation in PD is further supported by the identification of point mutations in α-Syn protein associated with rare familial forms of PD. However, the correlation between aggregation propensities of α-Syn mutants and their association with PD phenotype is not straightforward. Recent evidence suggested that oligomers, formed during the initial stages of aggregation, are the potent neurotoxic species causing cell death in PD. However, the heterogeneous and unstable nature of these oligomers limit their detailed characterization. α-Syn fibrils, on the contrary, are shown to be the infectious agents and propagate in a prion-like manner. Although α-Syn is an intrinsically disordered protein, it exhibits remarkable conformational plasticity by adopting a range of structural conformations under different environmental conditions. In this review, we focus on the structural and functional aspects of α-Syn and role of potential factors that may contribute to the underlying mechanism of synucleinopathies. This information will help to identify novel targets and develop specific therapeutic strategies to combat Parkinson's and other protein aggregation related neurodegenerative diseases. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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