Analysis of protein levels and solubility in distinct brain regions reveals several elements of the protein homeostasis network that are impacted by aging

Abstract The onset of protein conformation diseases is inextricably linked to aging. During aging, cellular protein quality control declines which results in diminished protein homeostasis (proteostasis(definition)). In model organisms, such as C. elegans and killifish, proteostatic decline with age has been linked to the onset of aggregation of proteins in wild-type animals, observed through detergent-insoluble fractionation. Analysis of studies applying detergent-insoluble fractionation in mice revealed that the composition of detergent-insoluble proteins changes with age. However, these individual fractionation studies have generally been limited to small numbers of mice. Herein, we expand on our previous analysis by extending the experiments to a larger cohort of mice and to two brain regions implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, the cortex and hippocampus. These experiments unveil insights into alterations in the abundance and solubility of proteins involved in protein quality control and in inflammation. For example, ribosomal proteins and many chaperone proteins are downregulated with age. Consistent enrichment of subunits of the extracellular C1q complex was also observed in both brain regions alongside an increase in immunoglobulin signal indicating that markers of increased inflammation may also become insoluble during aging. More generally, insoluble proteins share features observed in datasets of impaired protein degradation indicating that the loss of activity of cellular protein degradation machinery may contribute to the specific aggregation of these proteins.