Modeling of the metal binding sites in proteins involved in neurodegeneration

Many proteins involved in the neurodegeneration processes are potential metalloproteins. In some of them the metal binding domain is flexible or unstructured (e.g. prion proteins, β-amyloid peptide, α-synuclein) resembling oligo-peptide chains. The regular protein structure usually has a critical impact on the binding ability of metal ion to protein scaffold, while in peptides with random structures the individual binding ability of the particular amino acid residue may decide about the peptide binding to metal ion.