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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Sars-Cov-2, Long Covid, Prion Disease And Neurodegeneration, Yuhai Zhao, Vivian R. Jaber, Walter J. Lukiw Sep 2022

Sars-Cov-2, Long Covid, Prion Disease And Neurodegeneration, Yuhai Zhao, Vivian R. Jaber, Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Sars-Cov-2 Invasion And Pathological Links To Prion Disease, Walter J. Lukiw, Vivian R. Jaber, Aileen I. Pogue, Yuhai Zhao Sep 2022

Sars-Cov-2 Invasion And Pathological Links To Prion Disease, Walter J. Lukiw, Vivian R. Jaber, Aileen I. Pogue, Yuhai Zhao

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the COVID-19 disease, is a highly infectious and transmissible viral pathogen that continues to impact human health globally. Nearly ~600 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, and about half exhibit some degree of continuing health complication, generically referred to as long COVID. Lingering and often serious neurological problems for patients in the post-COVID-19 recovery period include brain fog, behavioral changes, confusion, delirium, deficits in intellect, cognition and memory issues, loss of balance and coordination, problems with vision, visual processing and hallucinations, encephalopathy, encephalitis, neurovascular or cerebrovascular insufficiency, and/or …


Alteration Of Biomolecular Conformation By Aluminum-Implications For Protein Misfolding Disease, Yuhai Zhao, Aileen I. Pogue, Peter N. Alexandrov, Leslie G. Butler, Wenhong Li, Vivian R. Jaber, Walter J. Lukiw Aug 2022

Alteration Of Biomolecular Conformation By Aluminum-Implications For Protein Misfolding Disease, Yuhai Zhao, Aileen I. Pogue, Peter N. Alexandrov, Leslie G. Butler, Wenhong Li, Vivian R. Jaber, Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

The natural element aluminum possesses a number of unique biochemical and biophysical properties that make this highly neurotoxic species deleterious towards the structural integrity, conformation, reactivity and stability of several important biomolecules. These include aluminum’s (i) small ionic size and highly electrophilic nature, having the highest charge density of any metallic cation with a Z2/r of 18 (ionic charge +3, radius 0.5 nm); (ii) inclination to form extremely stable electrostatic bonds with a tendency towards covalency; (iii) ability to interact irreversibly and/or significantly slow down the exchange-rates of complex aluminum–biomolecular interactions; (iv) extremely dense electropositive charge with one of the …


Recent Advances In Our Molecular And Mechanistic Understanding Of Misfolded Cellular Proteins In Alzheimer’S Disease (Ad) And Prion Disease (Prd), Walter J. Lukiw Jan 2022

Recent Advances In Our Molecular And Mechanistic Understanding Of Misfolded Cellular Proteins In Alzheimer’S Disease (Ad) And Prion Disease (Prd), Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Naturally occurring neuron-abundant proteins including amyloid Aβ42 peptide and the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) can, over time and under pathological situations, assume atypical conformations, altering their normal biological structure and function, and causing them to aggregate into insoluble and neurotoxic intracellular inclusions. These misfolded proteins ultimately contribute to the pathogenesis of several progressive, age-related and ultimately lethal human neurodegenerative disorders. The molecular mechanism of this pathological phenomenon of neuronal protein misfolding lends support to the ‘prion hypothesis’, which predicts that the aberrant folding of endogenous natural protein structures into unusual pathogenic isoforms can induce the atypical folding of other similar …


New Inroads Into Our Understanding Of The Tauopathies, Alzheimer's Disease, And The Contribution Of Altered Protein Conformation To Human Neurological Disease, Walter J. Lukiw Jan 2022

New Inroads Into Our Understanding Of The Tauopathies, Alzheimer's Disease, And The Contribution Of Altered Protein Conformation To Human Neurological Disease, Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.