Abstract

Amyloid diseases are a large group of a much larger family of misfolding diseases. This group includes pathologies as diverse as Alzheimer's disease, immunoglobulin-light-chain disease, reactive amyloid disease and the familial amyloid polyneuropathies. These diseases are generally incurable at present, although some drugs are known to transiently slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. As we increase our understanding of the causative mechanisms of these disorders, the likelihood of success for a given therapeutic strategy will become clearer. This review will look at small-molecule and macromolecular approaches for intervention in amyloid diseases other than Alzheimer's disease, although select examples from Alzheimer's disease will be discussed.

Author affiliations

1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, 2128 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843-2128, USA.
   Email: sacchett@tamu.edu
2. Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92075, USA.
   Email: jkelly@scripps.edu