Title:A Survey and a Molecular Dynamics Study on the (Central) Hydrophobic Region of Prion Proteins
Volume: 15
Issue: 11
Author(s): Jiapu Zhang and Feng Wang
Affiliation:
Keywords:
A detailed survey, central hydrophobic region, molecular dynamics study, prion diseases, prion protein.
Abstract: Prion diseases which are serious neurodegenerative diseases that affect humans and animals occur in various of
species. Unlike many other neurodegenerative diseases affected by amyloid, prion diseases can be highly infectious. Prion
diseases occur in many species. In humans, prion diseases include the fatal human neurodegenerative diseases such as
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI), Gerstmann-Strussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS) and
Kuru etc. In animals, prion diseases are related to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or ‘mad-cow’ disease) in
cattle, the chronic wasting disease (CWD) found in deer and elk, and scrapie seen in sheep and goats, etc. More seriously,
the fact that transmission of the prion diseases across the species barrier to other species such as humans has caused a major
public health concern worldwide. For example, the BSE in Europe, the CWD in North America, and variant CJDs
(vCJDs) in young people of UK. Fortunately, it is discovered that the hydrophobic region of prion proteins (PrP) controls
the formation of diseased prions (PrPSc), which provide some clues in control of such diseases. This article provides a detailed
survey of recent studies with respect to the PrP hydrophobic region of human PrP(110–136) using molecular dynamics
studies.