Heat shock proteins may play a key role in preventing dementia, helping to explain reports that sauna use reduces risk, according to British scientists.
The role of the proteins was uncovered by chance when scientists in Cambridge studied the impact of placing stress on diseased cells.
The scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute studied the process as part of trying to understand the build up of misfolded proteins in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Reporting in Nature Communications, they report they were surprised to find that stressing the endoplasmic reticulum of cells led to the refolding of proteins, not the misfolding. The main component of this mechanism was found to be heat shock proteins.
The work was made possible by new techniques, developed jointly with the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and the University of Algarve, Portugal. This allowed them to detect protein folding in vivo by measuring light patterns over nanoseconds.
Researcher Dr Edward Avezov said: “We were astonished to find that stressing the cell actually eliminated the aggregates – not by degrading them or clearing them out, but by unravelling the aggregates, potentially allowing them to refold correctly.
“If we can find a way of awakening this mechanism without stressing the cells – which could cause more damage than good – then we might be able to find a way of treating some dementias.”
He added: “There have been some studies recently of people in Scandinavian countries who regularly use saunas, suggesting that they may be at lower risk of developing dementia. One possible explanation for this is that this mild stress triggers a higher activity of HSPs, helping correct tangled proteins.”
Melo, EP, et al. Stress-induced protein disaggregation in the Endoplasmic Reticulum catalysed by BiP. Nature Comms 6 May 2022; doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30238-2
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