Study Strengthens Connection Among Protein Misfolding, Sleep Loss, and Age

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found in a recent fruitfly study how pathways of aging and sleep intersect at the circuitry of a cellular stress response pathway, and that by adjusting those connections, it may be possible to alter sleep patterns in elderly people. Increasing age is known to disrupt the sleep patterns in a variety of ways, with elderly people sleeping less at night compared to their younger counterparts. Aging is also associated with increasing levels of protein unfolding, a hallmark of cellular stress called the “unfolded protein response.” Protein misfolding is a characteristic of several age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The results of the fruitfly study showed that by adding a molecule to promote proper protein folding — called PBA — it mitigated the disruptive sleep patterns associated with older age, giving the flies a more youthful sleeping pattern, with more overall sleep and less interrupted sleep. To read more about this study, click here.