Monitoring of the role of metal ions and Metallothionein in the prion diseases development

In this study we tried to describe the role of prion proteins in living organisms. PrPC is a metal binding protein and there is a presumption that the metals may play a role in the pathogenic conversion of PrPC to PrPSc. Equally important link between prion diseases and metals is a protein Metallothionein (MT). The brain specific form of Metallothionein is MT–III. MT-III participates in formation of neurodegenerative diseases and maintains the metal balance in a brain. It was revealed that the lower level of MT-III can lead to the formation of neurofibrillary clusters characteristic of Alzheimer‘s disease. Recently, there are hypotheses that prion diseases may have common mechanisms of other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer‘s, Parkinson‘s or Huntington‘s disease. These hypotheses obviously ignited great scientific interest in the subject and the common features of these diseases are now intensively studied.

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