How a molecular motor untangles protein
Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 09:50
in Health & Medicine
A marvelous molecular motor that untangles protein in bacteria may sound interesting, yet perhaps not so important. Until you consider the hallmarks of several neurodegenerative diseases—Huntington's disease has tangled huntingtin protein, Parkinson's disease has tangled α-synuclein, and Alzheimer's disease has tangles of tau and β-amyloid. In fact, a similar untangling motor from yeast has already shown effectiveness in mouse and nematode models of Huntington's disease.