Nature: Studying the roots of aging through the ribosome

Aging leads to a decline in cellular fitness and loss of optimal protein function

The findings were published in the journal Nature, titled " Aging exacerbates ribosome pausing to disrupt cotranslational proteostasis .

"Aging is accompanied by a decline in cellular protein homeostasis, which underlies many age-related protein misfolding diseases," the researchers wrote.

By combining experimental and computational data analysis, the researchers found that ribosome function degenerates with age

"We already know that protein aggregation with age is a problem associated with many diseases

"A protein is at its most fragile and critical time in life, when it's most prone to misfolding -- that's when it's formed," said Dr.

The researchers used a technique called ribosome mapping, which allows them to see exactly how ribosomes move on messenger RNA during translation

"There are two situations where aging causes an increase in ribosomal collisions and a stall, but the cell loses its safety net to deal with it," explains Stein

The researchers hope that the aging phenomenon they discovered in yeast, C.

"This is just the beginning of a very fascinating future," said Dr.

"We propose that increased ribosomal pausing, leading to RQC overload and nascent polypeptide aggregation, critically promotes protein homeostasis and systemic decline during aging," the researchers concluded

Original title:

Aging exacerbates ribosome pausing to disrupt cotranslational proteostasis .