AGING & MOLECUAR CHAPERONES

Submitted by,
Anwesha Bose,
B.tech Biotechnology
Semester 7, roll 7
Adamas University
Subject: Protein Engineering
Aging is associated with onset of several neurodegenerative disorders
for example, Alzhimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s diseases. Researchers
could find a link between the presence of chaperones inside the cells
wih the occurrence of these degenerative diseases.
1. Molecular chaperones are encoded in highly conserved fashion which guides the
protein to achieve its native state and to save it from degradation.
2. With older age the health of these genes are found to be deteriorating drastically
which is even more accelerated with occurrence of degenerative diseases such as
those mentioned above.
3. Approximately one-third of all molecular chaperone genes get declined with age and
an even more drastic decline in chaperone genes may act as a biomarker of onset of
neurodegenerative disorders.
4. In absence of properly functioning molecular chaperones proteins are likely to get
misfolded and a lot of protein aggregates in the form of amyloid fibrils are likely to
get accumulated which in turn gives rise to various protein misfolding associated
disorders.
5. Protein misfolding will also disrupt the membrane organization and disrupt cell to
cell communication as membrane proteins are very much associated with cell
adhehision and signalling. This in turn will misfold the tissues leading to tissue
damage and might cause death of the individual.

Understanding the relationship between the gradual decline of

molecular chaperones with aging can help us to establish biomarkers
for determining any disease conditions and to predict the health of
an individual.