Proteostasis Deregulation in Neurodegeneration and Its Link with Stress Granules: Focus on the Scaffold and Ribosomal Protein RACK1.
The role of protein misfolding, deposition, and clearance has been the dominant topic in the last decades of investigation in the field of neurodegeneration. The impairment of protein synthesis, along with RNA metabolism and RNA granules, however, are significantly emerging as novel potential targets for the comprehension of the molecular events leading to neuronal deficits. Indeed, defects in ribosome activity, ribosome stalling, and PQC—all ribosome-related processes required for proteostasis regulation—can contribute to triggering stress conditions and promoting the formation of stress granules (SGs) that could evolve in the formation of pathological granules, usually occurring during ne…
Alzheimer's disease: new diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
Abstract On March 19, 2008 a Symposium on Pathophysiology of Ageing and Age-Related diseases was held in Palermo, Italy. Here, the lectures of M. Racchi on History and future perspectives of Alzheimer Biomarkers and of G. Scapagnini on Cellular Stress Response and Brain Ageing are summarized. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a heterogeneous and progressive neurodegenerative disease, which in Western society mainly accounts for clinica dementia. AD prevention is an important goal of ongoing research. Two objectives must be accomplished to make prevention feasible: i) individuals at high risk of AD need to be identified before the earliest symptoms become evident, by which time extensive neurodege…