1. Home page
  2. Search

Natural protective amyloids

This item is provided by the institution :
/aggregator-openarchives/portal/institutions/uoa   

Repository :
Pergamos Digital Library   

see the original item page
in the repository's web site and access all digital files if the item*



Natural protective amyloids
Iconomidou, V.A. Hamodrakas, S.J.
scientific_publication_article
Επιστημονική δημοσίευση - Άρθρο Περιοδικού (EL)
Scientific publication - Journal Article (EN)
2008
Amyloidoses are a group of diseases including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and also type II diabetes, spongiform encephalopathies and many others, believed to be caused by protein aggregation and subsequent amyloid fibril formation. However, occasionally, living organisms exploit amyloid fibril formation, a property inherent into amino acid sequences, and perform specific physiological functions from amyloids, in differing biological contexts. Some of these functional amyloids are natural protective amyloids. Here, we review recent evidence on silkmoth chorion protein synthetic: peptide-analogues, that documents the function of silkmoth chorion, the major component of the eggshell, a structure with extraordinary physiological and mechanical properties, as a natural protective amyloid. Also, we briefly discuss the reported function of other natural, protective amyloids like fish chorion, the protein Pmel17 which forms amyloid fibrils that act as templates and accelerate the covalent polymerization of reactive small molecules into melanin, the hydrophobins and the antifreeze protein from winter flounder. Molecular self-assembly is becoming an increasingly popular route to new supramolecular structures and molecular materials and the inspiration for such structures is commonly derived from self-assembling systems in biology. Therefore, a careful examination of these studies may set the basis for the exploration of new routes for the formation of novel biocompatible polymeric structures with exceptional physico-chemical properties, for potentially now biomedical and industrial applications. © 2008 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. (EN)
English
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
University of Athens
Pergamos Digital Library
Journal Article



*Institutions are responsible for keeping their URLs functional (digital file, item page in repository site)