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Nature 392, 23-24 (5 March 1998) | doi:10.1038/32049

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Neurodegeneration:  Chaperoning brain diseases

William J. Welch1 & Pierluigi Gambetti2

A common feature of several neurodegenerative disorders — including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases — is a pathogenetic mechanism which is similar to that proposed for prion diseases (Table 1). The proteins involved have poorly structured native conformations that can be destabilized further by genetic mutations, leading them to adopt beta-sheet structures.

  1. William J. Welch is in the Department of Surgery, Medicine and Physiology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
    e-mail: Email: welch@itsa.ucsf.edu
  2. Pierluigi Gambetti is in the Division of Neuropathology, Institute of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, 2085 Adelbert Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
    e-mail: Email: pxg13@po.cwru.edu