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Disruption of amyloid protein aggregates is one of the potential therapies for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as prion diseases. Here, for the first time we report that pH-independent cationic pyridylphenylene dendrimers are able to disrupt amyloid protein aggregates at physiological pH as exemplified by inclusion bodies of ovine prion protein. The results show that exposure of inclusion bodies to the dendrimers leads to its partial disaggregation and release of the nanosize protein-dendrimer complexes. The complexes were characterized by SDS PAGE, DLS, and Western blotting methods. Thioflavin T fluorescence clearly demonstrated a decrease of amyloidogenic capability of the prion protein upon exposure to the dendrimers. The complexes formed are stable and do not show further aggregation.

This review presents the main properties of hydroxycinnamic acid (HCA) derivatives and their potential application as agents for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. It is partially focused on the successful use of these compounds as inhibitors of amyloidogenic transformation of proteins. Firstly, the prerequisites for the emergence of interest in HCA derivatives, including natural compounds, are described. A separate section is devoted to synthesis and properties of HCA derivatives. Then, the results of molecular modeling of HCA derivatives with prion protein as well as with α-synuclein fibrils are summarized, followed by detailed analysis of the experiments on the effect of natural and synthetic HCA derivatives, as well as structurally similar phenylacetic and benzoic acid derivatives, on the pathological transformation of prion protein and α-synuclein. The ability of HCA derivatives to prevent amyloid transformation of some amyloidogenic proteins, and their presence not only in food products but also as natural metabolites in human blood and tissues, makes them promising for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases of amyloid nature.