Age-dependent and tissue-related features of the cellular prion protein

Neurodegenerative diseases are likely to be the neurological disorders with the highest incidence in affecting the world population in the next years. Among these diseases, prion diseases are undoubtedly of prominent biological and pathological interest (Prusiner, 2001). Prion diseases are also called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, or TSEs, and they can arise with sporadic, genetic or infective etiology. The latter characteristic so far discriminates prion diseases from other neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer‘s disease or Parkinson‘s disease....