Go to the Website for information, updates and literature on Chaperonopathies

Chaperonopathies are diseases in which molecular chaperones play a pathogenic role, because they are structurally altered and/or because they participate in a pathway favorable to the development of disease.

The scope of this Website encompasses all chaperonopathies with manifestations in one or more cells, tissues, and organs, focusing on humans but also including non-human models in as much as they may help in the understanding of the human counterparts.

This Website is an extension of the book “The Chaperonopathies” and is offered as a dynamic, interactive tool for updates and consultation. The primary objective is to educate physicians so they will be able to look for chaperonopathies, diagnose them, and prevent and treat them.

Because this is an emerging field, diagnosis and treatment of chaperonopathies are not always straightforward. Hence, this Website will also provide information and ideas to researchers in the clinics and in the laboratory, so progress can be made in the understanding of chaperonopathies and in the developing of diagnostic means and therapies.

Many common diseases, and others not as frequent, can have as a primary cause, or at least as a determinant cofactor, a defective chaperone: the abnormal chaperone is part of the pathogenic mechanism. Thus, elucidation of this mechanism will make treatment more adequate, more specific. The point is to ascertain whether in any given patient one or more molecular chaperones are involved in causing the disease. The signs and symptoms may be the same in various patients, thus leading to a standard diagnosis of a known pathological condition, distal motor neuropathy, for instance. However, some of these patients may have a chaperonopathy as part of the pathogenic mechanism whereas the others may not. This should be investigated by the clinician. A differential diagnosis exercise should be conducted to classify the patients into groups, depending on whether or not they have a chaperonopathy. It follows, that those patients that do have a chaperonopathy will be different from those that do not and will show distinctive signs and symptoms. These distinctive features must be unveiled by the physician by resorting to specific clinical and laboratory examinations.

go to the Website for information, updates and literature on Chaperonopathies

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