Discovered mechanism involved in age-related muscle function loss

Rui Silva, researcher from the ABC Research Institute at the University of Algarve (UAlg), and Rui Martinho, a researcher from the Ibimed – Institute of BioMedicine at the University of Aveiro, are the authors of the latest study published in the journal Nature Communications . This study is the result of a collaboration with the University of Bergen in Norway. The cause is an alteration in the N-terminal acetylation of proteins that function as protectors against protein degradation, thus preserving muscle function during aging.

The study, conducted using the fruit fly as a model, one of the organisms with a genome most similar to that of humans, has shown that N-terminal acetylation safeguards a set of proteins present in cells from degradation. To arrive at this conclusion, researchers manipulated a specific group of genes to understand the mechanism by which N-terminal acetylation protects proteins from degradation, thereby preserving muscle function during the aging process.

According to the researchers, “this modification, by shielding these proteins from degradation, also protects against the loss of muscle function associated with aging.”

For more information, please visit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42342-y