X-Message-Number: 21775
From: "Gary Tripp" <>
Subject: heat shock protiens and aging
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 11:21:43 -0700

Researchers discover common cause for aging and age-related disease



Why do serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and Huntington's mainly hit 
us in middle age or later? The
links between aging and age-related diseases have proved elusive.

In studies of the powerfully informative roundworm, C. elegans, UCSF scientists 
have discovered that a class

of molecules found in the worms and in people can both prolong life in the worm 
and prevent the harmful

accumulation of abnormal proteins that cause a debilitating Huntington's-like 
disease. The finding appears to

be the first evidence in an animal of a link between aging and age-related 
disease.


The molecules, called "small heat-shock proteins," are known to assemble into 
complexes that bind to damaged

or unfolded cellular proteins and prevent them from forming into harmful 
aggregations.


"We think we've found an important physiological explanation for both aging and 
age-related disease," said

Cynthia Kenyon, PhD, the Herbert Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics 
at UCSF and senior author on a

paper describing the work in the May 16 issue of SCIENCE. "The question of why 
older people are more

susceptible to so many diseases has been a fundamental, unsolved problem in 
biology. Our findings suggest a
beautiful molecular explanation, at least for this protein-aggregation disease.


"By preventing damaged and unfolded proteins from aggregating, this one set of 
proteins may be able to stave

off both aging and age-related disease. The small heat-shock proteins are the 
molecular link between the two."


from EurekaAlert

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