{"id":198422,"date":"2024-10-28T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/scientists-can-reverse-brain-aging-in-fruit-flies-by-preventing-buildup-of-a-common-protein"},"modified":"2024-10-28T20:23:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:23:07","slug":"scientists-can-reverse-brain-aging-in-fruit-flies-by-preventing-buildup-of-a-common-protein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/scientists-can-reverse-brain-aging-in-fruit-flies-by-preventing-buildup-of-a-common-protein","title":{"rendered":"Scientists can reverse brain aging in fruit flies by preventing buildup of a common protein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-can-reverse-brain-aging-in-fruit-flies-by-preventing-buildup-of-a-common-protein2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Actin, a family of proteins that help give cells their shape, are abundant throughout the body.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Humans aren\u2019t the only ones who grow forgetful as they age\u2014fruit flies do, too. But because fruit flies have a lifespan of only about two months, they can be a useful model for understanding the cognitive decline that comes with aging.<\/p>\n<p>A new study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-53389-w\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Communications<\/i> shows that when a common cell structural protein called filamentous actin, or F-actin, builds up in the brain, it inhibits a key process that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components within cells, including DNA, lipids, proteins and organelles.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting accumulation of waste diminishes neuronal functions and contributes to <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/cognitive+decline\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">cognitive decline<\/a>. By tweaking a few <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/specific+genes\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">specific genes<\/a> in aging fruit flies\u2019 neurons, the researchers prevented F-actin buildup, maintained cellular recycling and extended the healthy lifespan of fruit flies by approximately 30%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actin, a family of proteins that help give cells their shape, are abundant throughout the body. Humans aren\u2019t the only ones who grow forgetful as they age\u2014fruit flies do, too. But because fruit flies have a lifespan of only about two months, they can be a useful model for understanding the cognitive decline that comes [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,269,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-life-extension","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}