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Proteins inside any cell are packed together as tightly as passengers on the Tokyo subway at rush hour. Cell stressors can cause proteins to misfold, which in turn can cause them to aggregate and trigger disease. However, each cell also has stress sensors that attempt to restore “proteostasis”: proper protein folding. In two new reports, researchers provide hope that restoring proteostasis could help inhibit disease and aging some day.
A team from England created a small molecule, guanabenz, that prevented protein misfolding and promoted cell survival. Unlike some previous attempts to restore proteostasis chemically, this approach was very precise and caused no destructive side effects.
An international team focused on small molecules that ar…