Deregulation of CRTCs in Aging and Age-related Disease Risk

摘要

Advances in public health in the last century have seen a sharp increase in human life expectancy. With these changes have come increased incidence of age-related pathologies and health burdens in the elderly. Patient age is the biggest risk factor for multiple chronic conditions that often occur simultaneously within one individual. An alternative to disease centric therapeutic approaches is that of ‘geroscience’, which aims to define molecular mechanisms that link age to overall disease risk. One such mechanism is deregulation of CREB-regulated transcriptional coactivators, CRTCs. Initially identified for their role in modulating CREB transcription, the last five years has seen an expansion in knowledge of new cellular regulators and roles of CRTCs beyond CREB. CRTCs have been shown to modulate organismal aging in C. elegans and to impact age-related diseases in humans. Here, we discuss CRTC deregulation as a new driver of aging, and integrating link between age and disease risk.