Unlocking the Secrets of Aging: Could Protein Clumps Predict Age-Related Diseases?

Dorothee Dormann and Edward Lemke introduce a new approach to assess personal risk for age-related diseases.
Could measuring protein clumps in our cells become a novel method to assess our risk of age-related diseases? Professors Dorothee Dormann and Edward Lemke from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), who also serve as adjunct directors at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz, suggest the idea of a “protein aggregation clock” for gauging aging and health. This innovative concept is discussed in their new perspective article published in Nature Cell Biology.

As we age, the DNA and proteins that make up our bodies gradually undergo changes that cause our bodies to no longer work as well as before. This in turn makes us more prone to getting age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. One important change is that the proteins in our cells can sometimes become misfolded and clump together to form aggregates, so-called amyloids.