GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Aging is gradually becoming a major problem in modern society. Aging-associated neurodegeneration diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD)  pose challenges to human good health and well-being. About 6.5 million people in the United States live with AD. In China, AD is presently the fifth leading cause of death. There is no cure for AD currently. Many attempts have been made to treat Alzheimer's disease. However, therapeutic strategies to slow or suppress Alzheimer's disease have been elusive. AD is featured by the accumulation of Aβ plague, Tau tangles, and neuronal inflammation. Current therapeutic strategies aim to directly target these aspects. Scientists have developed anti-Aβ antibodies to treat AD. It showed limited benefits and raised some safety concerns. Treatment methods targeting tau protein have not been successful. Anti-neuroinflammation treatments have achieved beneficial results, but it is still in its early stages. Other treatments also remain unsuccessful. New strategies need to be developed to fight this devastating disease. Our project trying to test a new strategy to fight with AD and achieve the goal of good health and well-being. We think since the formation of Aβ plague and Tau tangles are due to protein misfolding, we may find a way to help protein folding and preserve their normal activity. It has been reported that a protein called CAHS3 from tardigrades can help proteins fold correctly and preserve their activity. In addition, when CAHS3 protein was expressed in cultured mammalian cells, it could prevent stress-induced cell death. Since neuronal cell death is the key feature of AD, we think CAHS3 might be a good choice help to reduce Aβ plague and Tau tangles and in the meantime to prevent neuronal cell death. Although our data show that CAHS3 ectopic expression in a fly AD model did not attenuate tau-induced fly developmental defects, more experiments need to be performed to test whether there is an improvement of eye degeneration when CAHS3 was expressed. Since protein misfolding and neuronal death are key features of many neurodegeneration diseases, CAHS3 could be tested for other disease models. Although it might not be successful yet, our new strategy might strike light in the field and inspire scientists to work out better strategies to contribute to sustainable development goals.