Part 4: The 9 causes of ageing - Misfolded proteins
In our series on the 9 causes of ageing, we now turn to a fourth identified cause of ageing: protein folding and aggregation.
Proteins: definition
Proteins are the building blocks of your body. Each of the 30,000 genes in your genome is the blueprint for a protein that will have a role of its own.
Proteins function mainly through their shape. When folded on itself in the right way, a protein becomes active and can perform its function properly.
Protein folding
When proteins are not folded or unfolded properly, they can accumulate and cause disease. In Parkinson's disease, for example, alpha-synuclein, a small protein found in neurons, is misfolded and forms aggregates in the ends of neurons. These aggregates eventually block neuronal communication and cause the symptoms we know about.
This accumulation can be due to a bad structure of the protein, linked to a mutation or a chemical reaction, or to the failure of the two systems for recycling the cellular building blocks. The cells of our organism have long been putting the principles of the circular economy into practice. These two mechanisms seem to deteriorate with age.
Chaperone proteins
Some proteins (called chaperone proteins) are responsible for helping other proteins to fold, but also for transporting them to the cell's protein dump if they stop working. As we age, these chaperone proteins can become less effective and less able to help other proteins to fold. As a result, these proteins themselves lose activity as they age, creating a vicious circle of protein management problems and an accumulation of misfolded proteins in your cells.
In short, over time, certain misfolded proteins accumulate in the body, polluting it and impairing the functioning of our cells, to the point of causing the death of some of them. This dysfunction is found in many diseases associated with ageing, such as Alzheimer's disease or age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The French-Croatian researcher Miroslav Radman has identified this as the main primary cause of ageing.
SOURCES:
Dr. Guilhem Velvé Casquillas on http://www.longlonglife.org/