Enhancing “Cellular Garbage Disposal” May Extend Lifespan

A team of scientists from UCLA have discovered that a gene previously implicated in Parkinson’s disease can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy lifespan of fruit flies. David Walker, an associate professor of integrative biology and physiology at UCLA, and colleagues studied a gene called parkin, which is known to flag damaged proteins for removal and is thought to play an important role in helping to remove damaged mitochondria from cells. The researchers found that they could increase the lifespan of fruit flies by 25% simply by increasing parkin expression. “Our research may be telling us that parkin could be an important therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases and perhaps other diseases of aging,” said Walker. “Instead of studying the diseases of aging one by one – Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes – we believe it may be possible to intervene in the aging process and delay the onset of many of these diseases.”