Stress proteins and glial functions: possible therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders.
Recent findings suggest that unfolded or misfolded proteins participate in the pathology of several neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Usually, several stress proteins and glial cells act as intracellular molecular chaperones and show chaperoning neuronal function, respectively. In the brains of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, however, stress proteins are expressed and frequently associated with protein aggregates, and glial cells are activated around degenerative regions. In addition, several stress proteins and glial cells may also regulate neuronal cell death and loss. Therefore, some types of stress proteins and glial cells are considered to be neuroprotective targets. We summarize the current findings regarding the neuroprotective effects of stress proteins and glial cells, and discuss the possibility of using this knowledge to develop new therapeutic strategies to treat neurodegeneration.
Kitamura
Yoshihisa
Y
Department of Neurobiology, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto 607-8412, Japan.
Nomura
Yasuyuki
Y
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017209:Apoptosis; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D017628:Microglia / Q000637:transplantation; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D016207:Cytokines; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins