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Updated: May 7, 2026

Investigating the Spreading and Toxicity of Prion-like Proteins Using the Metazoan Model Organism C. elegans
Published on: January 8, 2015
Modulation of prion by small molecules: from monovalent to bivalent and multivalent ligands
Matteo Staderini1, Giuseppe Legname, Maria Laura Bolognesi
1Departamento de Química Orgánica y Farmacéutica, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain. josecm@farm.ucm.es.
Abstract:
Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and animals and for which no pharmacological treatment is available. Compounds consisting of two identical moieties joined via an appropriate spacer (i.e. bivalent compounds) have turned out to be effective tools to prevent prion fibril formation and exhibit an improved biological profile with regard to the corresponding monovalent derivatives. In this review we discuss the importance of the bivalent strategy as a viable approach to design new chemical entities to combat prion diseases.
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