Protein aggregation is a hallmark of over 30 human pathologies. In these diseases, the aggregation of one or a few specific proteins is often toxic, leading to cellular degeneration and/or organ disruption in addition to the loss-of-function resulting from protein misfolding. Although the pathophysiological consequences of these diseases are overt, the molecular dysregulations leading to aggreg...

The pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases is believed to involve abnormal aggregation of proteins, but the mechanisms initiating protein aggregation are unclear. Here we report a novel phenomenon that could be instrumental in triggering protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. We show that the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of a light neurofilament (NF-L) transcript enhances the ...

Nanoparticle assay utilizing time-resolved luminescence resonance energy transfer (TR-LRET) was developed for the detection of protein aggregation. This mix-and-measure nanoparticle assay is based on the competitive adsorption of the sample and the acceptor-labeled protein to donor europium(III) polystyrene particles. The protein aggregation was detected with the developed TR-LRET nanoparticle ...

Ssc1p, a member of the Hsp70 family in the mitochondrial matrix of budding yeast, mediates protein import into mitochondria and prevents irreversible aggregation of proteins in the mitochondrial matrix during folding/assembly or at elevated temperature. Here, we show that functional inactivation of the mitochondrial Hsp70 system causes aggregation of mitochondria. When temperature-sensitive mit...

Protein and peptide aggregation raises keen interest due to their involvement in number of pathological conditions ranging from neurodegenerative disorders to systemic amyloidosis. Here, we have reviewed recent advances in mechanisms of aggregation, emerging technologies towards exploration, characterization of aggregate structures, detection at molecular level and the strategies to combat the ...

Misfolding and aggregation of amyloid peptides are critical pathological events in numerous protein misfolding diseases (PMDs), such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), type II diabetes (T2D), medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC)....