Title:Lipid Raft Alterations in Aged-Associated Neuropathologies
Volume: 13
Issue: 9
Author(s): Raquel Marin, Noemí Fabelo, Cecilia Fernández-Echevarría, Ana Canerina-Amaro, Deiene Rodríguez-Barreto, David Quinto-Alemany, Fátima Mesa-Herrera and Mario Díaz
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, biomarkers, cerebrospinal fluid, lipid rafts, lipids, Parkinson disease, signalosomes.
Abstract: Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains particularly enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipids
and saturated fatty acids. These microstructures play a key role in a plethora of mechanisms involved
in cell signaling, synapsis, cell-cell communication and cell survival. In the last years, increasing evidence
indicate that lipid rafts may be altered in age-related neuropathologies, such as Alzheimer’s disease
and Parkinson disease even at asymptomatic stages. In particular, important changes in raft lipid
composition are observed with the progression of these diseases, then inducing alterations in their physicochemical properties.
Furthermore, these phenomena contribute to neuropathological events related to amyloidogenesis, aberrant protein
aggregation and toxic cell signalling. In this review, we discuss some relevant data on the age-related molecular changes
occurring in lipid rafts since the first stages of these neurodegenerative diseases. Further characterization of specific parameters
associated with alterations of these microdomains may provide potential tools of diagnosis and prediction of
these neuropathologies.
