Neurodegenerative diseases are a wide class of hereditary and sporadic conditions characterized by progressive nervous system dysfunction. In many neurodegenerative diseases, the critical event associated with neurodegeneration is the misfolding of a cellular protein from its native conformation to a pathological species and its accumulation as intracellular or extracellular aggregates. These disorders, commonly referred to as misfolding diseases, include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), and prion diseases and are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Spontaneous events can destabilize a misfolding-prone protein or impair the clearance mechanisms, leading to the accumulation of misfolded aggregates. Recently, evidence is emerging that selected misfolded protein species associated with neurodegenerative disorders, such as AD, PD, and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), are able to propagate their misfolding through a prion-like mechanism. These new aspects have important implications for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

We invite authors to submit original research articles as well as review articles that will contribute to and stimulate our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying protein misfolding and the understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of neurodegenerative diseases. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Role of misfolded conformers in neurodegenerative diseases
• Formation and toxicity mechanisms of misfolded conformers
• Development of biochemical and biophysical techniques for the analysis of aggregated proteins in vivo
• Prion-like mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases and therapeutic implications
• Natural and transgenic animal models for studying neurodegenerative disorders
• Molecular therapies for treatment of misfolding diseases
• Development and refinement of novel delivery systems (viral and nonviral) for targeting of pathological misfolded proteins

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijcb/pmn/ according to the following timetable: