Nrf2 Improves Clearance of Damaged Proteins Associated with Neurodegeneration

The protein Nrf2 shows up in a number of places in the study of aging and related aspects of cellular biochemistry. Higher levels of Nrf2 appear to correlate well with longer species lifespan, at least among mammals in the wild, but this is also arguably the case in the various genetically engineered lineages of mice, worms, and flies that exhibit longer lifespans. Until recently the main focus of research into the role of Nrf2 has been the regulation of antioxidants as a response to cellular stress, as occurs due to the metabolic demands of exercise, for example. Of interest here is that Nrf2 levels decline with age, which is probably a phenomenon that we'd be better off without; it is one of many, many candidates for the mechanisms of aging that float somewhere between the root causes and the final consequences in the long chain of cause and effect that produces degenerative aging as we know it. In the research linked below, the authors expand the bounds of influence for Nrf2, linking it to some of the mechanisms of cellular housekeeping that strive to remove damaged proteins. In particular, it seems influential in the matter of a few proteins associated with neurodegenerative conditions, such as α-synuclein in synucleinopathies like Parkinson's disease. Greater cellular maintenance activity is a common theme in many of the methods that have been demonstrated to modestly slow aging in laboratory species. When cells have less damage at any given moment in time, that ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs