2026-02-02 スタンフォード大学
<関連情報>
- https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2026/02/aging-brains-proteins-cognitive-decline-alzheimers-research
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09987-9
老化はミクログリア細胞における分解の遅いシナプスタンパク質の蓄積を促進する Ageing promotes microglial accumulation of slow-degrading synaptic proteins
Ian H. Guldner,Viktoria P. Wagner,Patricia Moran-Losada,Sophia M. Shi,Sophia W. Golub,Johannes F. Hevler,Kelly Chen,Barbara T. Meese,Ali Ghoochani,Ernst Pulido,Hamilton Se-Hwee Oh,Yann Le Guen,Nannan Lu,Pui Shuen Wong,Ning-Sum To,Dylan Garceau,Zimin Guo,Jian Luo,Carolyn R. Bertozzi,Emma Lundberg,Monther Abu-Remaileh,Michael Sasner,Andreas Keller,Andrew C. Yang,… Tony Wyss-Coray
Nature Published:21 January 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09987-9

Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases affect 1 in 12 people globally and remain incurable. Central to their pathogenesis is a loss of neuronal protein maintenance and the accumulation of protein aggregates with ageing1,2. Here we engineered bioorthogonal tools3 that enabled us to tag the nascent neuronal proteome and study its turnover with ageing, its propensity to aggregate and its interaction with microglia. We show that neuronal protein half-life approximately doubles on average between 4-month-old and 24-month-old mice, with the stability of individual proteins differing among brain regions. Furthermore, we describe the aged neuronal ‘aggregome’, which encompasses 1,726 proteins, nearly half of which show reduced degradation with age. The aggregome includes well-known proteins linked to diseases and numerous proteins previously not associated with neurodegeneration. Notably, we demonstrate that neuronal proteins accumulate in aged microglia, with 54% also displaying reduced degradation and/or aggregation with age. Among these proteins, synaptic proteins are highly enriched, which suggests that there is a cascade of events that emerge from impaired synaptic protein turnover and aggregation to the disposal of these proteins, possibly through microglial engulfment of synapses. These findings reveal the substantial loss of neuronal proteome maintenance with ageing, which could be causal for age-related synapse loss and cognitive decline.


