Book Description
Proteinopathy is a collective term used to classified neurodegenerative diseases associated with the progressive accumulation of toxic protein molecules in specific brain regions. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a well-known proteinopathy characterize by the accumulation of A peptides and tau proteins. The accumulation of these toxic molecules in the brain starts many years before any clinical presentation, being the onset in the range of 65 to 72 years of age. Therefore, age is considered a risk factor due, in part, to the loss of molecular competence to clear the brain from these toxic protein molecules. This fact, supported by years of research, demonstrates that brain cells activate a neuroprotective mechanism upon detection of a pathobiological signal that (if the detrimental conditions persist) precedes the activation of the neurodegeneration pathway. The progressive brain region specific neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases also indicates that the transition from neuroprotection to neurodegeneration is individually triggered in cells of the affected brain region. Thus, molecular understanding of the pathophysiology associated with proteinopathies needs to take in consideration this intricate transition process, especially when genomics and proteomics approaches are used.
