Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 3, 2026

Measuring RAN Peptide Toxicity in C. elegans
Published on: April 30, 2020
Single amino acid repeats connect viruses to neurodegeneration
Guglielmo Lucchese, Darja Kanduc1
1Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Via Orabona, 4, 70125, Bari, Italy. darja.kanduc@uniba.it.
Abstract:
We report on a high level of octapeptide matching between HCV, HIV-2, MPV, MUV, EBV, HHV-6, and CMV, and human brain antigens that, when altered, have been specifically associated with neuropathologies such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinocerebellar ataxia, frontotemporal degeneration, Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, cognitive impairment, aphasia and oculomotor apraxia. Quantitatively, the extent of the viral octapeptide sharing with neurodegeneration- associated proteins is in excess when analyzed in a stochastic expectation context. Qualitatively, two main features characterize the peptide matching: 1) many common sequences are single amino acid repeats, and 2) mostly, the shared octapeptides are part of experimentally validated epitopes, thus suggesting an immune crossreactive potential of the viral peptides shared with brain antigens involved in neurodegeneration. The present study may have relevance for peptidebased therapeutic approaches to block potential autoimmune crossreactions in neurological diseases and dysfunctional behavior.
More Related Videos
08:53Assay to Measure Nucleocytoplasmic Transport in Real Time within Motor Neuron-like NSC-34 Cells
Published on: May 16, 2017
05:22Author Spotlight: Characterizing DNA Replication of Pathogenic Repeats to Uncover Mechanisms of Replication Fork Stalling and Expansion
Published on: September 13, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Subviral Agents
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining,...
Amyloid Fibrils
Viral Mutations
Retroviruses
Size and Structure of Viral Genomes