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A neurodegenerative-disease protein forms beneficial aggregates in healthy muscle

Protein aggregation is a characteristic of several neurodegenerative diseases. But disease-associated aggregates of the protein TDP-43 have now been shown to have a beneficial role in healthy muscle.
  1. Lindsay A. Becker

    1. Lindsay A. Becker is in the Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA, and in the Stanford Neurosciences Graduate Program, Stanford University School of Medicine.

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  2. Aaron D. Gitler

    1. Aaron D. Gitler is in the Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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Most neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by the build-up of clumps of proteins in the brain1. A prevailing view in the field is that these large protein assemblies are inherently abnormal and are toxic to cells. Writing in Nature, Vogler et al.2 challenge this canon by reporting that muscle cells can contain physiological, reversible protein aggregates that have features similar to the aggregates seen in neurodegenerative disease, but that actually seem to be beneficial.

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Nature 563, 477-478 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07141-2

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