Neonatal Maternal Separation Modifies Proteostasis Marker Expression in the Adult Hippocampus.

Exposure to early-life stress (ELS) can persistently modify neuronal circuits and functions, and contribute to the expression of misfolded and aggregated proteins that are hallmarks of several neurodegenerative diseases. The healthy brain is able to clear dysfunctional proteins through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP). Accumulating evidence indicates that impairment of these pathways contributes to enhanced protein aggregation and neurodegeneration.