Researchers report the discovery of a protein, P17/PERMIT, that is key to recycling aging and damaged mitochondria. Defective mitochondria are characteristic of a number of age-related diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer’s. The MUSC team showed P17/PERMIT transports the machinery that produces ceramide, a molecule that signals old mitochondria for destruction, to the mitochondria. There, it can mass-produce ceramide at the location needed for mitochondrial regulation.
