Discovery May Provide Insight into Brain Cell Aging

[TECH NEWS]

One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain. The scientists discovered that certain proteins, called extremely long-lived proteins (ELLPs), which are found on the surface of the nucleus of neurons, have a remarkably long lifespan. While the lifespan of most proteins totals two days or less, the Salk Institute researchers identified ELLPs in the rat brain that were as old as the organism, a finding they reported in Science. The Salk scientists are the first to discover an essential intracellular machine whose components include proteins of this age. Their results suggest the proteins last an entire lifetime, without being replaced. ELLPs make up the transport channels on the surface of the nucleus; gates that control what materials enter and exit. Damage to the ELLPs weakens the ability of the three-dimensional transport channels that are composed of these proteins to safeguard the cell’s nucleus from toxins, says Martin Hetzer, who headed the research. These toxins may alter the cell’s DNA and thereby the activity of genes, resulting in cellular aging.

Feb. 3, 2012, Salk Institute