×

Boosting Cellular Housekeeping with Exercise and Fasting

Share







In order to remain healthy and functional, cells have a number of maintenance systems that help them to dispose of metabolic waste and unwanted proteins. Autophagy is perhaps the best-known example of how cells purge their waste, and another is the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Researchers are working on ways to boost the activity of the UPS to improve cellular health.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system

During normal cellular function, proteins being constructed in the cell can sometimes become misfolded and start to accumulate over time, which can cause the cell to become dysfunctional and encourage diseases such as Alzheimer’s to develop as the system gums up with bent and broken proteins.

This problem is further escalated when the protein-recycling UPS system malfunctions or cannot keep pace with how fast the protein waste is building up. This accumulation of waste proteins is thought to be one of the reasons we age.

The UPS system works by marking unwanted proteins for destruction with a ubiquitin molecule, almost like painting a bullseye on them. This molecule marks the unwanted protein for disposal by the 26S proteasome, the cellular garbage disposal unit that breaks down proteins into their constituent amino acids, allowing them to be recycled into new proteins.

ADVERTISEMENT

Eterna is a clothing company with a focus on longevity.

The pace at which the UPS works depends on environmental stimuli, and it can be influenced by fasting and the mitochondrial oxidative stress response that follows exercise.

Boosting the signal for garbage disposal

A study from the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School has shown how fasting, exercise, and various hormones can boost the activity of the UPS in removing damaged and unwanted proteins [1]. The researchers show that this happens via a previously unknown mechanism, which is triggered by hormone changes.

Previous research by the same team showed that the disposal system can be activated using drugs to increase the level of a molecule called cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a derivative of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main energy currency of cells. cAMP, once activated, causes enzyme protein kinase A (PKA) to become active and ultimately triggers protein degradation within the cell.

The researchers examined the effect of exercise by collecting muscle cells from the thighs of people before and after they had engaged in intense cycling. They found that these cells had far greater cAMP following exercise and thus a higher level of UPS activity.

ADVERTISEMENT

An advertisement banner for PartiQular supplements.

They also found that fasting had a similar effect on the activity of the UPS in the muscle and liver cells of mice that fasted for a 12-hour period. They also exposed mouse liver cells to the hormone glucago, which activates the production of glucose that cells can use for food when regular sources of nutrition are not available. Glucago was shown to increase the pace of unwanted protein disposal via activation of the UPS.

Exposure to the adrenaline hormone epinephrine also produced similar results, with an increase of cAMP levels, 26S proteasome activity, and protein degradation. Finally, the researchers exposed mouse kidney cells to the hormone vasopressin, which helps us to retain water and avoid dehydration, and a similar increase in protein degradation was observed

The new study shows that changes to physiological states and the resulting shift in hormones can influence the UPS independently of drug interventions and that these changes to protein degradation are highly dynamic. It also shows that there is a diverse range of hormones that can activate cAMP and that they share a common mechanism in regulating protein degradation and cell health. Hormones are already known to play a variety of roles, including influencing gene expression, so their ability to influence cellular waste disposal is quite the discovery.

Conclusion

Developing ways to boost cellular garbage removal would be useful, and this research gives us a deeper insight into how we might achieve this. This data also suggests that exercise and fasting may help to reduce the risk of developing age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS, which are all associated with misfolded proteins. Given that the price point of fasting and exercise is effectively zero, there is little reason not to consider using them to reduce the impact of aging.

ADVERTISEMENT

To do this, we need your support. Your charitable contribution tranforms into rejuvenation research, news, shows, and more. Will you help?

Literature

[1] VerPlank, J. J., Lokireddy, S., Zhao, J., & Goldberg, A. L. (2019). 26S Proteasomes are rapidly activated by diverse hormones and physiological states that raise cAMP and cause Rpn6 phosphorylation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201809254.

CategoryNews
About the author

Steve Hill

Steve serves on the LEAF Board of Directors and is the Editor in Chief, coordinating the daily news articles and social media content of the organization. He is an active journalist in the aging research and biotechnology field and has to date written over 600 articles on the topic, interviewed over 100 of the leading researchers in the field, hosted livestream events focused on aging, as well as attending various medical industry conferences. His work has been featured in H+ magazine, Psychology Today, Singularity Weblog, Standpoint Magazine, Swiss Monthly, Keep me Prime, and New Economy Magazine. Steve is one of three recipients of the 2020 H+ Innovator Award and shares this honour with Mirko Ranieri – Google AR and Dinorah Delfin – Immortalists Magazine. The H+ Innovator Award looks into our community and acknowledges ideas and projects that encourage social change, achieve scientific accomplishments, technological advances, philosophical and intellectual visions, author unique narratives, build fascinating artistic ventures, and develop products that bridge gaps and help us to achieve transhumanist goals. Steve has a background in project management and administration which has helped him to build a united team for effective fundraising and content creation, while his additional knowledge of biology and statistical data analysis allows him to carefully assess and coordinate the scientific groups involved in the project.