Understanding the effects of aging on the cells in our body | Scientific minute

Understanding the effects of aging on the cells in our body is critical for developing anti-aging treatments. Aging is characterized by a decline in cellular proteostasis, which is the balance between protein synthesis and degradation. This decline in cellular proteostasis underlies many age-related protein misfolding diseases, most of which affect the brain, causing age-related dementia. The exact molecular mechanism for this decline is not entirely clear, however. A New study by Judith Frydman’s research team in Stanford University now published in ‘Nature’ unraveled one of the mechanisms responsible for this effect. This research was done in a worm called C. elegans and the single-celled yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae, two well-established models for aging, thanks mostly to their short life cycle. First the researchers were able to validate that aging causes reduced production of the cellular machinery needed to produce proteins, namely the ribosomes. Importantly, however, what the scientists found was that aging is characterized by pausing of the ribosome elongation of proteins during their synthesis, what is called ‘ribosome pausing’, at particular segments termed polybasic stretches, of the proteins being translated. This causes ribosome collisions and aggregation of proteins within cells. the life-long accumulation of the proteins is thought to be toxic to cells and drive neurodegeneration when it occurs in neurons in the brain.