Neurodegenerative diseases and neuroprotection: current views and prospects

Most of the pathophysiological processes of neurodegenerative diseases share the aggregation of related proteins which is one of the hallmarks of the degenerative processes. Recent advances in the knowledge of these proteinopathies show that the same protein could contribute to a number of diseases, thus suggesting a common pathological process. If this is so, specific instances of the brain neuronal system targeted by protein dysfunction could be a sign of a differential clinical expression rather than different pathological processes. This very stimulating view of the neurodegenerative diseases based on physiopathology has led us to suggest that possible degenerative mechanisms may be shared by different diseases although the causes of the disease itself still remain unclear. Since genetic forms of the degenerative diseases are rather rare, exploring the involvement of genes is one current way of researching the degenerative process of the disease. It is has thus been speculated that idiopathic forms of the diseases are related to close interactions between genetic and environmental factors; the genetic component being able to favour - or perhaps, to protect against - the disease process. Because of the current view that the basic mechanism of cell death in degenerative diseases is related to a rather limited number of processes in which oxidative stress could play a central role resulting in protein dysfunction and aggregation, one can speculate that there are neuroprotective medicines soon to be proposed based on the active limitation of protein accumulation in the brain.