Protein Folding and Misfolding, Relevance to Disease, and Biological Function

Toxic Effects ................................................................................................ 26 1.11 Mechanisms of Amyloid Toxicity ............................................................... 29 1.12 Biological Surfaces as Primary Sites of Amyloid

Assembly and Toxicity ................................................................................ 32 1.13 Ion Channel Hypothesis............................................................................... 35 1.14 Two Faces of Protein Biology..................................................................... 37 1.15 Degenerative Conditions with Protein Aggregates

May Be Much More Common Than Previously Believed ......................... 39 1.16 Amyloids May Perform Biological Functions............................................. 43 1.17 Final Considerations .................................................................................... 46 References ............................................................................................................... 48

The last decade has provided significant achievements in the field of protein folding thus highlighting key issues in the closely linked areas of protein misfolding and aggregation. Presently, protein folding and protein aggregation are considered in close competition to each other relying on the same physicochemical basis.