| abstract |
Embodiments of the present invention include methods and systems for designing inhibitors of amyloidosis in humans, domesticated animals, and wild animals as well as inhibitors of amyloidosis designed by the methods and systems. Methods and systems for designing inhibitors of amyloidosis are largely computational, in nature, and are directed to designing various types of polymers, small-molecule organic compounds, organometallic compounds, or non-chemical physical processes that can target the extended-a-strand and a-sheet regions of amyloidogenic protein and polypeptide intermediates in order to prevent aggregation of those intermediates into protofibrils and fibrils that, in turn, recruit additional native-conformation proteins and polypeptides into amyloidogenic intermediates and that additionally aggregate to form higher-order structures, such as plaques observed in the brains of patients suffering from the various spongiform encephalopathies. |