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The role and mechanism of leucyl-tRNA synthetase in the regulation of protein synthesis in aging skeletal muscle

XIA Zhi¹, SHANG Hua-Yu², WANG Qian-Jin¹, ZHAO Yan¹, DING Xiao-Min^1,*

¹College of Physical Education, Jinggangshan University, Ji’an 343009, China；²School of Sports Medicine and Health, Chengdu Sport Institute, Chengdu 610041, China

Abstract

The imbalance of protein metabolism is the major cause of skeletal muscle atrophy, and the decrease of protein synthesis directly leads to the occurrence and development of age-related sarcopenia. The canonical role of leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) is ligating leucine to the cognate tRNA, and thus it plays a central role in genetic coding. With the further studies of LeuRS in recent years, LeuRS has been found to control protein homeostasis in aging skeletal muscle via its non-canonical role. In this paper, we reviewed the structure and biological features of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase and LeuRS, and summarized the recent advances in studies on the effects of LeuRS in regulating aging skeletal muscle protein synthesis as an intracellular leucine sensor. Moreover, we also analyzed the potential role of LeuRS in activation of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling transduction pathway in response to anabolic stimuli such as exercise and amino acids ingestion. This paper may provide some new ideas for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of age-related sarcopenia.

Key words: leucyl-tRNA synthetase; aging; skeletal muscle protein synthesis; age-related sarcopenia; target of rapamycin complex 1

Received: 2019-09-22　　Accepted: 2019-12-26

Corresponding author: 丁孝民　　E-mail: dingxiaomin@126.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2020.0053

Citing This Article：

XIA Zhi, SHANG Hua-Yu, WANG Qian-Jin, ZHAO Yan, DING Xiao-Min. The role and mechanism of leucyl-tRNA synthetase in the regulation of protein synthesis in aging skeletal muscle. Acta Physiol Sin 2020; 72 (4): 523-531 (in Chinese with English abstract).