“DE-CLUTTER your life” is a mantra of many a self-help book, but de-clutter your internal organs instead and you could prevent the harmful effects of ageing. In mice at least, ensuring the liver stays clean and tidy has kept that organ as good as new, even in whiskery old-timers.
In healthy young cells, the removal of old proteins relies on “chaperone molecules” that attach to the proteins and then dock with enzyme-filled compartments called lysosomes, which dismantle and recycle them. But as we age, this clean-up machinery starts to fail, allowing damaged proteins to accumulate.
To see if this protein…
