Amyloids, Aggregates and Neuronal Inclusions: Good or Bad News for Neurons?

Protein aggregation and misfolding are two of the pathological hallmarks that are common to many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and Huntington disease. While it has generally been assumed that protein aggregation is responsible for neurodegeneration in these disorders, we suspect that protein aggregation, rather than being a major killer of neurons, is, in fact, an attempt to protect neurons from stressful, disease-causing conditions. In this review, we weigh the evidence of whether amyloids, aggregates and neuronal inclusions are good or bad news for neurons.