Microbial genetic screens for monitoring protein misfolding associated with neurodegeneration: tools for identifying disease-relevant genes and for screening synthetic and natural compound libraries for the discovery of potential therapeutics.

Microbial genetic screens for monitoring protein misfolding associated with neurodegeneration: tools for identifying disease-relevant genes and for screening synthetic and natural compound libraries for the discovery of potential therapeutics. Curr Pharm Des. 2018 May 15;: Authors: Kostelidou K, Matis I, Skretas G Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) are a major threat to the aging population and the lack of a single preventive or disease-modifying agent only serves to increase their impact. In the past few years, protein misfolding and the subsequent formation of neurotoxic oligomeric/aggregated protein species have emerged as a unifying theme underlying the pathology of these complex diseases. Recently developed microbial genetic screens and selection systems for monitoring ND-associated protein misfolding have allowed the establishment of high-throughput assays for the identification of cellular factors and processes that are important mediators of ND-associated proteotoxicities. In addition, such systems have facilitated the discovery of synthetic and natural compounds with the ability to rescue the misfolding and the associated pathogenic effects of aggregation-prone proteins associated with NDs. This review outlines such available systems in bacteria and yeast, whose usage will likely accelerate the pre-clinical discovery process for effective drugs against a variety of NDs with high socioeconomic impact. PMID: 2976...
Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Curr Pharm Des Source Type: research