Recent Advances of Biology and Medicinal Chemistry of Prion Protein and Prions: On the Road to Therapeutics

摘要

Currently, an even more intriguing aspect is that this ever-increasing understanding of prion molecular mechanisms has unexpectedly impacted other related neurodegenerative disorders. From the revolutionary idea of prion self-replication, the likelihood that a more common neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's, shows a prion-like transmissibility under particular experimental conditions has gained a widespread acceptance [2]. Thus, it is highly reasonable to hypothesize that research and progresses in such rare diseases with low public health priority and visibility might benefit one of the major public health crises of the 21st century.