title: Protein folding disorders: toward a basic biological paradigm.
abstract: Mechanistic 'physics' models of protein folding fail to account for the observed spectrum and rate of protein folding and aggregation disorders in human populations, showing that more appropriately in vivo paradigms reflecting biological and other embedding contexts are needed for understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of these diseases. Here, a topological rate distortion analysis is applied to the problem that is analogous to Tlusty (2007) elegant exploration of the genetic code. A 'developmental' perspective sees the rate distortion function as a temperature analog in a spontaneous symmetry breaking argument, and permits incorporation of external factors as catalysts, driving the system to different possible outcomes via a nonequilibrium empirical Onsager treatment, viewed as a kind of dynamic regression equation. The formalism produces large-scale, quasi-equilibrium 'resilience' states representing normal and pathological protein folding. Generalization to long times produces diffusion models of protein folding disorders in which epigenetic or life history factors determine the rate of onset of dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, Box 47, 1051 Riverside Dr., New York, NY, 10032, United States. wallace@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
authors.forename: Rodrick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wallace
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D055162:Biocatalysis; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D008954:Models, Biological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D057165:Proteostasis Deficiencies / Q000378:metabolism*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins