Determining the effects of nanoparticulate air pollution on proteostasis in Caenorhabditis elegans

作者：Emily H. Green, Elise A. Kikis · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0243419 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms、Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research、Alzheimer's disease research and treatments

The proteostasis network comprises the biochemical pathways that together maintain and regulate proper protein synthesis, transport, folding, and degradation. Many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by a failure of the proteostasis network to sustain the health of the proteome, resulting in protein misfolding, aggregation, and, often, neurotoxicity. Although important advances have been made in recent years to identify genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases, we still know relatively little about environmental risk factors such as air pollution. Exposure to nano-sized particulate air pollution, referred to herein as nanoparticulate matter (nPM), has been shown to trigger the accumulation of misfolded and oligomerized amyloid beta in mice. This suggests that the ability to maintain proteostasis is likely compromised in Alzheimer 's disease (AD) pathogenesis upon exposure to nPM. We aim to determine whether this aspect of the environment interacts with proteostasis network machinery to trigger protein misfolding. This could at least partially explain how air pollution exacerbates the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases of aging, such as AD. We hypothesize that nPM challenges the buffering capacity of the proteostasis network by reducing the efficiency of folding for metastable proteins, thereby disrupting what has proven to be a very delicate proteostasis balance. We will test this hypothesis using C. elegans as our model system. Specifically, we will d...