Continuous renewal of intracellular components is required to preserve cellular functionality. In fact, failure to timely turnover proteins and organelles leads often to cell death and disease. Different pathways contribute to the degradation of intracellular components in lysosomes or autophagy. In this review, we focus on chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), a selective form of autophagy that modulates the turnover of a specific pool of soluble cytosolic proteins. Selectivity in CMA is conferred by the presence of a targeting motif in the cytosolic substrates that, upon recognition by a cytosolic chaperone, determines delivery to the lysosomal surface. Substrate proteins undergo unfolding and translocation across the lysosomal membrane before reaching the lumen, where they are rapidly degraded. Better molecular characterization of the different components of this pathway in recent years, along with the development of transgenic models with modified CMA activity and the identification of CMA dysfunction in different severe human pathologies and in aging, are all behind the recent regained interest in this catabolic pathway.

Over a third of older adults in the U.S. experience significant vision loss, which decreases independence and is a biomarker of decreased health span. As the global aging population is expanding, it is imperative to uncover strategies to increase health span and reduce the economic burden of this age-related disease. While there are some treatments available for age-related vision loss, such as surgical removal of cataracts, many causes of vision loss, such as dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), remain poorly understood and no treatments are currently available. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the factors that contribute to disease progression for age-related vision loss and to uncover methods for disease prevention. One such factor is the effect of diet on ocular diseases. There are many reviews regarding micronutrients and their effect on eye health. Here, we discuss the impact of dietary patterns on the incidence and progression of age-related eye diseases, namely AMD, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Then, we focus on the specific role of dietary carbohydrates, first by outlining the physiological effects of carbohydrates on the body and then how these changes translate into eye and age-related ocular diseases. Finally, we discuss future directions of nutrition research as it relates to aging and vision loss, with a discussion of caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, drug interventions, and emerging randomized clinical trials. This is a rich field with the capacity to improve life quality for millions of people so they may live with clear vision for longer and avoid the high cost of vision-saving surgeries.

Protein quality control is essential for cellular survival. Failure to eliminate pathogenic proteins leads to their intracellular accumulation in the form of protein aggregates. Autophagy can recognize protein aggregates and degrade them in lysosomes. However, some aggregates escape the autophagic surveillance. Here we analyse the autophagic degradation of different types of aggregates of synphilin-1, a protein often found in pathogenic protein inclusions. We show that small synphilin-1 aggregates and large aggresomes are differentially targeted by constitutive and inducible autophagy. Furthermore, we identify a region in synphilin-1, necessary for its own basal and inducible aggrephagy and sufficient for the degradation of other pro-aggregating proteins. Although the presence of this peptide is sufficient for basal aggrephagy, inducible aggrephagy requires its ubiquitination, which diminishes protein mobility on the surface of the aggregate and favours the recruitment and assembly of the protein complexes required for autophagosome formation. Our study reveals different mechanisms for cells to cope with aggregate proteins via autophagy and supports the idea that autophagic susceptibility of prone-to-aggregate proteins may not depend on the nature of the aggregating proteins per se, but on their dynamic properties in the aggregate.

The glyoxalase system is critical for the detoxification of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). AGEs are toxic compounds resulting from the non-enzymatic modification of biomolecules by sugars or their metabolites through a process called glycation. AGEs have adverse effects on many tissues, playing a pathogenic role in the progression of molecular and cellular aging. Due to the age-related decline in different anti-AGE mechanisms, including detoxifying mechanisms and proteolytic capacities, glycated biomolecules are accumulated during normal aging in our body in a tissue-dependent manner. Viewed in this way, anti-AGE detoxifying systems are proposed as therapeutic targets to fight pathological dysfunction associated with AGE accumulation and cytotoxicity. Here, we summarize the current state of knowledge related to the protective mechanisms against glycative stress, with a special emphasis on the glyoxalase system as the primary mechanism for detoxifying the reactive intermediates of glycation. This review focuses on glyoxalase 1 (GLO1), the first enzyme of the glyoxalase system, and the rate-limiting enzyme of this catalytic process. Although GLO1 is ubiquitously expressed, protein levels and activities are regulated in a tissue-dependent manner. We provide a comparative analysis of GLO1 protein in different tissues. Our findings indicate a role for the glyoxalase system in homeostasis in the eye retina, a highly oxygenated tissue with rapid protein turnover. We also describe modulation of the glyoxalase system as a therapeutic target to delay the development of age-related diseases and summarize the literature that describes the current knowledge about nutritional compounds with properties to modulate the glyoxalase system.

Summary: Inability to preserve proteostasis with age contributes to the gradual loss of function that characterizes old organisms. Defective autophagy, a component of the proteostasis network for delivery and degradation of intracellular materials in lysosomes, has been described in multiple old organisms, while a robust autophagy response has been linked to longevity. The molecular mechanisms responsible for defective autophagic function with age remain, for the most part, poorly characterized. In this work, we have identified differences between young and old cells in the intracellular trafficking of the vesicular compartments that participate in autophagy. Failure to reposition autophagosomes and lysosomes toward the perinuclear region with age reduces the efficiency of their fusion and the subsequent degradation of the sequestered cargo. Hepatocytes from old mice display lower association of two microtubule‐based minus‐end‐directed motor proteins, the well‐characterized dynein, and the less‐studied KIFC3, with autophagosomes and lysosomes, respectively. Using genetic approaches to mimic the lower levels of KIFC3 observed in old cells, we confirmed that reduced content of this motor protein in fibroblasts leads to failed lysosomal repositioning and diminished autophagic flux. Our study connects defects in intracellular trafficking with insufficient autophagy in old organisms and identifies motor proteins as a novel target for future interventions aiming at correcting autophagic activity with anti‐aging purposes.