Monitoring the ubiquitin/proteasome system in conformational diseases

Controlled proteolysis of regulatory or aberrant proteins by the ubiquitin/proteasome system is indispensable for cell viability. Conformational diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease are characterised by the accumulation of misfolded or aggregation-prone proteins. Since these proteins are typical substrates of the ubiquitin/proteasome system, it is not surprising that various models propose impairment of this system as a contributing factor to the pathology of conformational disorders. The complex nature of the ubiquitin/proteasome system and its universal role in cell physiology however turns evaluation of these attractive hypotheses into a major challenge. Several reporter substrates for the ubiquitin/proteasome system have recently been developed to facilitate functional studies of the system in living cells. In this review, we will discuss these new tools as well as the proteins associated with conformational disease that have been studied with these reporters.