An enthusiastic student, learning that proteasomes degrade proteins, suggests using a proteasome inhibitor drug to increase human longevity. The rationale given was that degradation wastes the energy that the cell put into to synthesizing those proteins in the first place, and avoiding that waste of energy would lead to increased protein accumulation, growth, and, perhaps, life span. Is this a theoretically sound approach to increasing lifespan ?
Only one answer is correct.
Question 10 options:
yes, conserving energy by reducing protein degradation would be beneficial to the organism, so a proteasome inhibitor should increase lifespan.
yes, because inhibition of the proteasome would lead to accumulation of poly-ubiquitin-tagged proteins and the additional protein mass of the poly-ubiquitin chains would contribute further to growth.
no, because protein degradation through the proteasome is a key part of molecular quality control and cell health, by specifically eliminating damaged/misfolded proteins.
no, because, as a peptidase, the proteasome would degrade any drug that was administered, thus rendering the treatment ineffective.
no, because the proteasome is required to guide the proper folding of proteins so inhibiting the proteasome would block protein folding.