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Age-dependence and aging-dependence: The case of neuronal loss and lifespan in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease

View ORCID ProfileJavier Apfeld, View ORCID ProfileWalter Fontana
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098038
Javier Apfeld
1Biology Department, Northeastern University, Boston MA 02115, USA
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  • For correspondence: j.apfeld@northeastern.edu walter@hms.harvard.edu
Walter Fontana
2Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115, USA
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  • For correspondence: j.apfeld@northeastern.edu walter@hms.harvard.edu
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Abstract

It is often assumed, but not established, that the major neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, are not just age-dependent (their incidence changes with time) but actually aging-dependent (their incidence is coupled to the process that determines lifespan). To determine a dependence on the aging process requires the joint probability distribution of disease onset and lifespan. For human Parkinson’s disease, such a joint distribution is not available because the disease cuts lifespan short. To acquire a joint distribution, we resorted to an established C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease in which the loss of dopaminergic neurons is not fatal. We find that lifespan is not correlated with the loss of neurons and that a lifespan-extending intervention into insulin/IGF1 signaling accelerates neuronal loss, while leaving death and neuronal loss times uncorrelated. This suggests that distinct and compartmentalized instances of the same genetically encoded insulin/IGF1 signaling machinery act independently to control neurodegeneration and lifespan in C. elegans. Although the human context might well be different, our study calls attention to maintaining a rigorous distinction between age-dependence and aging-dependence.

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Posted January 04, 2017.
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Age-dependence and aging-dependence: The case of neuronal loss and lifespan in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease
Javier Apfeld, Walter Fontana
bioRxiv 098038; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098038
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Age-dependence and aging-dependence: The case of neuronal loss and lifespan in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease
Javier Apfeld, Walter Fontana
bioRxiv 098038; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098038

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