Nanoparticulate air pollution disrupts proteostasis in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The proteostasis network comprises the biochemical pathways that together maintain and regulate proper protein synthesis, transport, folding, and degradation. Many progressive neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's disease (HD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by an age-dependent failure of the proteostasis network to sustain the health of the proteome, resulting in protein misfolding, aggregation, and, often, neurotoxicity. Although important advances have been made in recent years to identify genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases, we still know relatively little about environmental risk factors such as air pollution.