Cellular Garbage Contributes to Neurodegenerative Diseases

Several human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Diseases, are linked to an accumulation of abnormal and aggregated proteins in cells. Cellular ‘garbage’ can be removed from cells by sweeping them to a cellular recycling station known as the lysosome. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Germany) have discovered a new family of helper proteins that recognize labeled protein waste and guide them efficiently to the lysosome for destruction and recycling.  These proteins, termed CUET proteins (for Cue5/Tollip adaptors) recognize pathological protein aggregates (cellular waste), including those of human neurodegenerative diseases. CUET proteins also associate with specific cellular structures that target the whole complex to the lysosome.  The study authors write that: “We thus propose that CUET proteins play a critical and ancient role in autophagic clearance of cytotoxic protein aggregates.”