Skeletal muscle is a fundamental tissue as it is found throughout the body, sustains posture, and produces movement. Yet, skeletal muscle disorders, such as myopathies, affect a large percentage of the population, degrading an individual's quality of life. A recent study links myopathy progression to the decline in chaperone-mediated autophagy that occurs during aging. Underscoring the importance of a balanced CMA pathway in maintaining skeletal muscle function and integrity, the study also provides mechanistic insights into the pathways that are dysregulated due to defective CMA and presents an approach to reverse the age-dependent decline in this process.Abbreviations: ATP2A1, ATPase sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transporting 1; CMA, chaperone-mediated autophagy; HSPA8, heat shock protein family A (Hsp70) member 8; LAMP2A, lysosomal associated membrane protein 2A.
Dialynaki et al. (Sun,) studied this question.