Op-Ed: Neurons vs aging? Major findings for neural health and aging

Neurological conditions have overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of disability and early death – Copyright AFP Mohammed ABED

Fruit flies are famous for being the baseline of groundbreaking research. In this case, it’s fundamental research. UCLA research indicates that a common protein called F-actin is a major factor in brain aging.

This protein is universal and critical among multicellular life for its structural and other properties. It’s hardly surprising it was a subject of research into brain functionality.  

The outcome of the UCLA research, however, was pretty mindblowing. The research found that cellular clutter and faulty disposal of cellular waste materials was on eof the factors in aging.  F-actin was found to a problem in this regard.

This issue relates to “autophagy”, the body’s cellular waste disposal system. It’s basic cellular biology. You will probably know that buildups of proteins in the brain are believed to be responsible for Alzheimer’s and other serious medical conditions. Dysfunctional proteins in particular are also associated with various progressive diseases.

If the autophagy doesn’t work a progressive level of buildup of undesirable materials is inevitable. This problem shows up like a monotonous dirge in many medical conditions.

This is where the UCLA research paid off in spades.

The researchers “prevented” F-actin buildup around neurons using a genetic process. This resulted in improved health and a longer lifespan of about 30% for the fruit flies.

You can extend the logic quite a lot in this scenario and there are some interesting tangents:  

Removing clutter around neurons has this drastic of an effect on health? OK, why and how?

Does neural health directly affect aging throughout the body? Doesn’t sound unreasonable, does it, but does that mean it’s actually systemic? Fix the neurons and you strengthen the whole system?

What sort of metrics for basic biological functions changed after the decluttering process? Since this is brain neurology, it might be a sort of map of fixes for other issues.

You can see how long, and how useful, a piece of string this could be.

What if a basic tune-up for people included a bit of F-actin spring cleaning of the brain neurons?

If the nervous system has that much of a role in aging, and managing F-actin is the key, jackpot. They’re onto something incredibly useful.