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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry
Investigating Spatiotemporal Kinetics, Dynamics, And Mechanism Of Exosome Release, Anarkali Mahmood
Investigating Spatiotemporal Kinetics, Dynamics, And Mechanism Of Exosome Release, Anarkali Mahmood
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Exosomes are small lipid-based vesicles that can carry biomolecules from one cell to another. While exosomes are crucial to maintain homeostasis in healthy cells, they are exploited by unhealthy cells to aid disease progression. Exosomes likely facilitate disease progression via the transfer of disease-causing biomolecules from unhealthy to healthy cells. Exosomes are generated in Multivesicular endosomes (MVEs) and are then secreted into the extracellular space to travel to other cells. Despite being a crucial step, very little is known about exosomes release mechanism and dynamics. To further our understanding of exosomes, specifically their secretion, my work has focused on investigating …
Inhibitors Of Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation, Jemil Ahmed
Inhibitors Of Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation, Jemil Ahmed
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Alpha-Synuclein (αS) – a neuronal, disordered, presynaptic protein – aggregates into amyloid fibrils and accumulates in the substantia nigra pars compacta of Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients. The aggregation and accumulation of αS amyloid fibrils leads to death of dopaminergic neurons; a hallmark of PD. Although it’s not clear why αS aggregates, prior studies have found that intrastriatal injection of fibril alone is sufficient to cause PD pathology in mouse and non-human primates models. These observations implicate αS as a therapeutic target against PD.
Unfortunately, there are three caveats when attempting to target αS. First, αS is a neuronal protein expressed …