Identification of the cleavage sites leading to the shed forms of human and mouse anti-aging and cognition-enhancing protein Klotho.

Klotho is an age-extending, cognition-enhancing protein found to be down-regulated in aged mammals when age-related diseases start to appear. Low levels of Klotho occur in neurodegenerative diseases, kidney disease and many cancers. Many normal and pathologic processes involve the proteolytic shedding of membrane proteins.