Molecular Chaperones in Neurodegeneration

Abstract

Cellular chaperones are essential players to this protein quality control network that functions to prevent protein misfolding, refold misfolded proteins, or degrade them, thereby maintaining neuronal proteostasis. Moreover, overexpression of cellular chaperones is considered to inhibit protein aggregation and apoptosis in various experimental models of neurodegeneration. Alterations or downregulation of chaperone machinery by age-related decline, molecular crowding, or genetic mutations are regarded as key pathological hallmarks of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD), and Prion diseases. Therefore, chaperones may serve as potential therapeutic targets in these diseases. This chapter presents a generalized view of misfolding and aggregation of proteins in neurodegeneration and then critically analyses some of the known cellular chaperones and their role in several neurodegenerative disorders.