Does an Actin Cytoskeletal Stress Response Exist and Have Relevance to Aging?

As often mentioned here, cells and living organisms are built out of an enormous array of very complex subsystems, and those very complex subsystems are prone to dysfunction over the course of aging. As soon as any one part of a subsystem is sufficiently impacted by the mechanisms of aging to run awry, the whole subsystem starts to run awry. An army of scientists ten times the size of the one we have now would take a century to catalog every last important detail of the way in which aging causes disarray. These mechanisms are all interesting in their own right, and the goal of science is full understanding. But the sheer scope of such a project is precisely why we should not focus on increased understanding of the fine details of the progression of aging as the primary near future path to the production of therapies. Instead, we should focus on attempting to repair and reverse the well-known mechanisms of aging, and then observe the outcomes. That is the practical path to longer, healthier lives over the course of the near future of the next few decades. As an example of a complex system that may run awry with age for reasons that are poorly understood and have the look of being quite interesting, researchers here discuss whether or not there exists a form of stress response focused on maintaining the integrity of the cell cytoskeleton. That the upregulation of some associated regulatory proteins can increase life span in short-lived species is suggestive. One ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs