Protein-misfolding in neurodegenerative disease

Abstract

Many of the neurodegenerative diseases share common features and molecular patterns that suggest their pathology may be directly comparable. Diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Prion diseases are all characterised by abnormal accumulations of proteins and selective neuronal degeneration. This article reviews the known pathology and aetiology of these diseases in order to explore the links between them including defective free radical accumulation, mitochondrial dysfunction and impairment of protein degradation pathways.