The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex as a therapeutic target for age-related diseases.

Departments of Medicine (Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism) and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. pws@ufl.edu

Aging cell 2012 Jun

filter terms:

Considerable research has been conducted on mitochondrial biology as it pertains to aging. However, relatively little attention has been accorded the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) relative to how we grow old and acquire age-related diseases. The purpose of this review is threefold: first, to describe the physiological chemistry of the PDC and define its place in normal cellular bioenergetics; second, to compare and contrast the pathogenesis and clinical features of congenital PDC deficiency with discrete examples of age-associated dysfunction of the complex; and third, to summarize recent findings in Caenorhabditis elegans that shed additional new light on the significance of the PDC to the aging process. © 2012 The Author. Aging Cell © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland.