Newly discovered cell machinery breaks down protein aggregates into smaller pieces before ‘taking it to the trash’

A new study by the University of Aarhus shows that the ability of our cells to clean the old protein tufts, called aggregates, also includes one – to the unknown – a part – a part with an engine that breaks down the largest rooms in smaller ones before “taking it to the trash”. An important discovery for future treatments of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson, SLA and Huntington, which are characterized by the accumulation of proteins in the brain.

Imagine you are about to eat a big pizza. In order not to suffocate, you cut it into slices and eat it by bite. And while you reprimand your slices, the cells inside your body are busy cutting the pile of proteins built into pieces which are more manageable for the body of the body cans – otherwise it obstructed and dysfunction.

Researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Aarhus have just published a new study, which for the first time documents exactly how these unwanted protein clusters are reduced to smaller parts before being eliminated by the cell elimination system – autophagy. The work is published in the journal Cellular biology of nature.

The process implies something called the 19S proteasomal subunit and the DNAJB6-HSP70-HSP110 module, which practically form a crusher. And although it may look more like a barcode on a printer, it is in fact a very important key that can lead to better treatments of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson, Huntington, SLA and other diseases that are characterized by Professor Fulvio Reggiori who is behind the study.

“We knew that cells pack protein and other cellular enlargement materials, aggregates, to be thrown into the main center for elimination of the cell, lysosomes. But we still do not know how they are rejected.

“Now we have discovered that these tufts must be reduced in size thanks to something that could be considered as a fragment strike. Affecting other organs.”

And although the discovery is not a remedy, it is one more step, explains Reggiori. “We know that the increase in autophagy, which is one of the two main cleaning systems of our cells, can delay the appearance of several of the devastating neurodegenerative diseases mentioned. Our results suggest that combined treatment where we improve both the decomposition of large clusters of protein in smaller parts to make a better substrate for these diseases.

The researchers will now focus their research on how the identified machine breaks tufts, and if additional actors in cells play a role in this, explains Regiori.

“We are just starting to decipher the mechanism of this whole cell cleaning process, and we must deeply plunge into details before we can start working on real treatments, but understanding how we can improve it, will certainly help to eliminate, at least partially, these toxic protein aggregates leading to neurodegerative diseases that