Introduction
Alzheimer’s disease and cancer are known to be very serious disorders that can cause death especially in the elderly. The prevalence of cancer is dramatically increased with age, and in contrast, Alzheimer’s disease is an age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder. Cancer is defined as a disease whereby a collection of abnormal cells divides uncontrollably by ignoring the normal principles of cell division (Hejmadi, 2010). There is known to be more than 200 types of cancers and its two main characteristics are uncontrolled growth of the cells in the human body and the ability of these cells to migrate from the original site and spread to distant sites. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that …show more content…
Proteins are small molecules composed of polymers of amino acids encoded by a small section of our DNA (a gene). In order for theses amino acid polypeptide chains to function, most of them need to fold up in particular three dimensional structures, However, proteins do not always fold properly and have a higher risk of aberrant folding. Misfolded proteins can be very toxic to the cell because they are prone to aggregation and protein aggregation are very toxic. To avoid the perils of this protein misfolding, cells invest in a complex network of molecular chaperons, which uses particular mechanisms to avoid aggregation and promote efficient folding (Hartl et al.,2011). Recent studies suggest that the levels of theses molecular chaperons drop as we age therefore misfolded proteins can accumulate resulting in aggregation. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with plaques in the brain and theses plaques are aggregated, tangled up misfolded proteins. This age related drop in chaperons is also found diseases like Parkinson’s diseases, mad cow diseases and Huntington’s disease etc. On the other hand, cancer is caused by mutations which occur mainly in genes that code for proteins. So if there is a mutation in genes, it can lead to a mutation in proteins resulting to difficulty in protein folding. Cancer cells figured out how to capture chaperons to deal with mutations. In diseases like Alzheimer’s, molecular chaperon levels …show more content…
A unique enzyme called Pin1 plays a major part in the pathogenesis of many humane cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. This Pin1 enzyme works on protein as soon as they have been phosphorylated at specific sites triggering them to coil between two completely different conformations. This conformational change severely affects protein activity and its main technique of cellular signalling and regulation. In the neuron, Pin1 encourages cellular health by restoring amyloid precursor protein and phosphorylated tau protein to functional state. In Alzheimer’s disease there is a loss of Pin1 gene and this loss of Pin1 gene leads to overproduction of β-amyloid and the accumulation of abnormal tau. In cancer, this Pin1 gene is overexpressed hence promoting oncogenesis through different signal pathways (Driver, et
Alzheimer’s disease and cancer are known to be very serious disorders that can cause death especially in the elderly. The prevalence of cancer is dramatically increased with age, and in contrast, Alzheimer’s disease is an age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder. Cancer is defined as a disease whereby a collection of abnormal cells divides uncontrollably by ignoring the normal principles of cell division (Hejmadi, 2010). There is known to be more than 200 types of cancers and its two main characteristics are uncontrolled growth of the cells in the human body and the ability of these cells to migrate from the original site and spread to distant sites. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that …show more content…
Proteins are small molecules composed of polymers of amino acids encoded by a small section of our DNA (a gene). In order for theses amino acid polypeptide chains to function, most of them need to fold up in particular three dimensional structures, However, proteins do not always fold properly and have a higher risk of aberrant folding. Misfolded proteins can be very toxic to the cell because they are prone to aggregation and protein aggregation are very toxic. To avoid the perils of this protein misfolding, cells invest in a complex network of molecular chaperons, which uses particular mechanisms to avoid aggregation and promote efficient folding (Hartl et al.,2011). Recent studies suggest that the levels of theses molecular chaperons drop as we age therefore misfolded proteins can accumulate resulting in aggregation. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with plaques in the brain and theses plaques are aggregated, tangled up misfolded proteins. This age related drop in chaperons is also found diseases like Parkinson’s diseases, mad cow diseases and Huntington’s disease etc. On the other hand, cancer is caused by mutations which occur mainly in genes that code for proteins. So if there is a mutation in genes, it can lead to a mutation in proteins resulting to difficulty in protein folding. Cancer cells figured out how to capture chaperons to deal with mutations. In diseases like Alzheimer’s, molecular chaperon levels …show more content…
A unique enzyme called Pin1 plays a major part in the pathogenesis of many humane cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. This Pin1 enzyme works on protein as soon as they have been phosphorylated at specific sites triggering them to coil between two completely different conformations. This conformational change severely affects protein activity and its main technique of cellular signalling and regulation. In the neuron, Pin1 encourages cellular health by restoring amyloid precursor protein and phosphorylated tau protein to functional state. In Alzheimer’s disease there is a loss of Pin1 gene and this loss of Pin1 gene leads to overproduction of β-amyloid and the accumulation of abnormal tau. In cancer, this Pin1 gene is overexpressed hence promoting oncogenesis through different signal pathways (Driver, et