Non-Canonical Autophagy in Aging

Autophagy is the name given to a complex collection of processes that recycle broken and unwanted proteins and cell structures. Autophagy declines in effectiveness with age, while upregulation of autophagy is a feature of many of the approaches shown to slow aging in laboratory species. The ability of calorie restriction to slow aging appears to depend on autophagy, for example. So far, little meaningful progress has been made towards therapies that can greatly improve on the ability of exercise to improve autophagy, though mTOR inhibitors could be argued to be somewhat better than exercise on this front, given their greater effect on longevity in short-lived mammals. As mentioned, autophagy is complicated, and the paper here is an example of that complexity, diving into what is known as non-canonical autophagy, some of the less well explored interactions taking place during cell maintenance.

Macroautophagy requires the conjugation of members of the ATG8 family, ubiquitin-like proteins including LC3 and GABARAP, to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). This enables double-membrane vesicles termed autophagosomes to recruit ATG8 proteins, which mediate loading and maturation of cargo. More recently, autophagy-independent functions of ATG8 proteins have been discovered. Several recent studies have highlighted these additional roles of ATG8 proteins leading to alternative fates of their cargo in degradation and secretion, together referred to as non-canonical autophagy (NCA). W...

Source: Fight Aging! - March 27, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs