Sirtuin on a high-fat diet

摘要

Sirtuins regulate a broad range of processes, including transcription, metabolism, fat mobilization, neuro-degeneration and ageing. The various functions of these proteins have been largely ascribed to their ability to catalyse the removal of acetyl groups from the lysine amino-acid residues of other proteins through their deacetylase activity. Yet the exact biological action of sirtuins remains unclear. For instance, one sirtuin, SIRT6, which has been implicated in genome stability, inflammation, cancer-cell metabolism and even lifespan, is a very weak deacetylase.