Microglial Autophagy in Parkinson ' s Disease

Autophagy is the name given to a collection of maintenance processes responsible for clearing waste and damaged proteins and structures from the cell. Autophagy is implicated in aging. It is thought to become dysfunctional and less efficient in cells in aging tissues. Further, evidence suggests that improved autophagy is an important mechanisms in the slowing of aging produced by calorie restriction and a range of other interventions tested in laboratory species. Here, researchers discuss the relationship between aging and autophagy specifically in the context of Parkinson's disease and the role of inflammatory microglia in the progression of that condition. One might compare this with a very similar paper noted last week. In a healthy organism, the homeostasis of the central nervous system (CNS) is dependent on the interactions of various nerve cells. However, in the CNS of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, there is an aberrant build-up of α-synuclein (α-Syn) and a cascade effect of gradual neuronal damage that breaks the appropriate balance, which leads to inflammation in the CNS. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved degradation pathway that is responsible for the digestion and recycling of the majority of intracytoplasmic proteins and organelles. Autophagy maintains homeostasis by delivering cytoplasmic materials to the lysosome for degradation. Due to poor autophagy, inappropriately aggregated α-Syn in the CNS of PD patients cannot be removed and accumula...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs