Cellular proteostasis decline in human senescence

A huge amount of intrigue surrounds the aging process. Senescence—the decreased likelihood of reproduction and the increased chance of mortality—is a hallmark of aging. The reduced ability of senescent cells to maintain protein homeostasis (proteostasis) has been well-established in nematodes but this phenomenon had yet to be directly demonstrated in human cells. Sabath et al. recently provided compelling evidence that proteostasis collapse is indeed intrinsic to human cell senescence, which may have broad implications in the underlying processes of human aging.