The Molecular Role of Polyamines in Age-Related Diseases: An Update

Abstract

Polyamines (Pas) are short molecules that exhibit two or three amine groups that are positively charged at a physiological pH. These small molecules are present in high concentrations in a wide variety of organisms and tissues, suggesting that they play an important role in cellular physiology. Polyamines include spermine, spermidine, and putrescine, which play important roles in age-related diseases that have not been completely elucidated. Aging is a natural process, defined as the time-related deterioration of the physiological functions; it is considered a risk factor for degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and musculoskeletal diseases; arthritis; and even cancer. In this review, we provide a new perspective on the participation of Pas in the cellular and molecular processes related to age-related diseases, focusing our attention on important degenerative diseases such as Alzheimerߣs disease, Parkinsonߣs disease, osteoarthritis, sarcopenia, and osteoporosis. This new perspective leads us to propose that Pas function as novel biomarkers for age-related diseases, with the main purpose of achieving new molecular alternatives for healthier aging.

DAB-APT: a Fluorescence-Based Assay for Determining Aminopropyl Transferase Activity and Inhibition

“…The most common polyamines include putrescine (diamine), spermidine (triamine), and spermine (tetramine) 2 . The pathway for the biosynthesis of polyamines has long been considered an attractive target for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of microbial infections, cancer, and neurodegeneration [3][4][5][6][7] . In various organisms, including Plasmodium falciparum, the main causative agent of human malaria, the polyamine biosynthesis pathway initiates with the decarboxylation of ornithine via ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) to form putrescine 8,9 .…”