Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the deposition of extracellular amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) and intracellular neurofibrillar tangles, associated with loss of neurons in the brain and consequent learning and memory deficits. Aβ is the major component of the senile plaques and is believed to play a central role in the development and progress of AD both in oligomer and fibril forms. Inhibition of the formation of Aβ fibrils as well as the destabilization of preformed Aβ in the Central Nervous System (CNS) would be an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of AD. Moreover, a large number of studies indicate that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction may play an important role in AD and their suppression or reduction via antioxidant use could be a promising preventive or therapeutic intervention for AD patients. Many antioxidant compounds have been demonstrated to protect the brain from Aβ neurotoxicity. Ferulic acid (FA) is an antioxidant naturally present in plant cell walls with anti-inflammatory activities and it is able to act as a free radical scavenger. Here we present the role of FA as inhibitor or disaggregating agent of amyloid structures as well as its effects on biological models.

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Oxidative stress has long been linked to neuronal cell death that is associated with certain neurodegenerative conditions. Whether it is a primary cause or merely a downstream consequence of the neurodegenerative and aging process is still an open question. Mitochondria are deeply involved in the production of reactive oxygen species through the electron carriers of the respiratory chain and their role in neurodegenerative diseases is discussed here. Moreover, the input of new technological approaches in the study of oxidative stress response or in the evidence of an oxidative stress component in neurodegeneration is reviewed in this paper.

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SYNOPSISTime-resolved studies of network self-organization from homogeneous solutions of the representative biostructural polymer agarose are presented. Solutions are temperature quenched and observed by several techniques. Consistent with previous suggestions by the authors, experiments at concentrations up to about 1.75% w/v provide direct kinetic evidence for the occurrence of at least two distinct processes, leading, in sequence, to selfassembly. These are as follows: ( a ) a liquid-liquid phase separation of the solution occurring via spinodal demixing and resulting in two sets of regions that have, respectively, higher and lower than average concentrations of random-coiled polymers; and ( b ) the subsequent 2 coils + double helix transition and accompanying cross-linking and gelation (due to branching of double helices ), occurring in the high-concentration regions. The size of the high-concentration regions depends upon agarose concentration and quenching temperature, and is in the range from a fraction of micrometers to a few micrometers, in agreement with earlier experiments. Bundling of the double-helical segments is known to follow self-assembly and can be considered as a third step (gel curing). This follows from the thermodynamic instability of the helical segments in the solvent, behaving as a system of rod-like particles connected by more or less flexible joints.The two processes leading in succession to self-assembly are discussed in terms of a phase diagram consistent with available data. Their time scales differ remarkably. A t the end of the first process, all polymers remain random coiled and freely drifting. Much later coil-helix transition is observed, always in coincidence with polymer cross-linking and gelation. The enhancement of concentration of random-coiled polymers in specific regions of the sol caused by spinodal demixing is thus a prerequisite for self-assembly of these biostructural gels in the concentration interval studied. Conceptually, concentration enhancements of this type can provide a new pathway for promotion of functional biomolecular interactions even at very low average concentrations. The mechanism will work identically if the region of instability is reached by varying the polymer concentration (e.g., by biosynthesis), rather than by temperature quenching.

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